The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-13
MOBIIslZTNG5 OUR FISHERIES Frank C. Carpenter

the Columbia river This is on account or the salmon, which IS put up in cans so that it can easily be snlpped to the sol- aieis. Salmon has become d popular sea food all over the WorId 1t IS known to every nation ana eaeen i'll every country. LasC year we LOON out oI the PacitIc ocean enough saimUn to fill 60OO,O00 cases, each hoIdins 4S one-podnd cans. In round numbers, the amount was 3D0UOU, U0U pounds, or more than the weight of the trst l, o00,O00 men we shall send to the war The whole catch was almost enoagh to give can to every man, woman ana child in Europe or three cans to every clazen of the United States. It was worth more than SiJ,OJ0000. In addition to this an enormous amount of salmon has been salted or smoked. This also can be shipped abroad for the use of our allies. The same is true of haHbut, her ring and cod.
 The coast of Alaska winds about to such an extent that il it were stretched out it would be l0J0 miles longer than the distance around the world. Nearly every part of it sWarms with fish, and we have caught so many since We bought the territory of Russia that the amount received is 70 times as much as we paid for the country. It is now PSSSsNNS'NSNb fisheries says that with proper care the product may be made continuous for all time to come.
 Nearly every part of the Alaskan waters swarms with fish and there are certain banks or beds of the ocean which are paved with halibut and cod.
 We used to get most of our halibut from the Atlantic, and it has been one of the chief sea foods of the eastern part of our country ever since Capt. John Smith worte of it in his history of Virginia.
 Now four-fifths of our halibut comes from the Pacific ocean and the bulk Of it from the waters of Alaska. The fish are caught with hooks and put upon ice as soon as they come out of the water. They are shipped over the United States by fast trains of cold storage cars. Some of the halibut is salted and put up in hogsheads for shipment abroad. The Germans have been laying in stock of such fish for their army, and 1 doubt not we could use some in the same way for our soldiers. The Germans imported the fish in hogsheads of $50 pounds each at cost of s100 per hogshead.
 I saw them curing halibut this way at Prince Rupert in Canada. The average fish used was as heavy as a good-sized man. It was sliced in two, the back and front forming two slabs of sncw- white meat It was then hung up like sides of beef, and the backbone was cut out. The slabs were then salted and laid one on top of another in the hogshead until 1t was full of what was practically solid meat. Another fish from Alaska which could easily be shipped as food for our allies Is the cod. There are great banks about the Aleutian islands, where the cod swarms as thickly as it once did on the banks of Newfoundland. We are now catching millions of pounds of Alaskan codfish every year, and the amount is steadily increasing. We take a great deal from the waters of the Atlantic and we are planting cod eggs and cod fish in those waters to increase the supply. About 10 years ago more than 100000 GOO little cods were planted by the United States bureau of fisheries during one season. The cod is prolific. Ten million eggs have been taken from a single fe- male, weighing 75 pounds, and it is a poor cod that will not lay couple, Of million eggs.