The Alaska daily empire., 1922-05-13
EXPERIMENTS OF FISH
COMMISSION PRAISED;
WORK SHOULD KEEP UP

Juneau, May 10, 1917.
To The Editor:
When life first appeared its i'm.
mediate demand was for food and
from then till now there has been no
time nor place that any other want
has been as great. Many sometimes
think they want gold more. though
their real want is what gold can buy.
But when hunger presses they find
they want food most The great Ma
poleon is best remembered from his
saying, can army fights on its belly"
The best thing Napoleon ever did
was to originate the canning industry,
which was started directly from his
offer and award of $1,000 francs for
the best method of preserving per-
ishables, particularly fresh meats
Salmon canning in Maine quickly
followed and that was the beginning
Of this great industry in America.
A high civilization calls for a di-
vision of labor so each section may
country produces everything, but
everyone of importance now sends
beyond it's borders some food prod
ucts and in general each leads in
something.
Alaska does her part towards sup
plying humanity with goods with a
single product from the waters of the
ocean Here she ranks far above all
others and there is no other country
ON earth with as small a population
that exports half as much in either
quantity or value as Alaska annually
sends away in fish Her total in
value for the last decade reached
we'll up to the billion dollar mark.
an amount too big for any intellect
to fully grasp Comparisons are cas-
Ter and Alaska's salmon product for
that 10 years nearly or quite equalled
combined considerably SURPRISING all
the other countries Of the world put
together in her banner years.
Important though as food for i'm
mediate use really is. one thing else
through all nature is even more so.
Throughout both the vegetable and
animal kingdoms to produce seed, or
to provide for reproduction is every
where Natures highest aim. and Is
of altogether the greatest importance
The total amount OF any one thing
for food during different years may
vary considerable and even drop low
without occasioning any special hard
ship, but If the seed for reproduc-
ton is reduced 1t seriously affects
the immediate future. Often under
unusual conditions such as existed
not long ago, the demand for GER
tain food products has been so great
as to encroach upon the amount
usually allowed for reproduction.
There is no doubt this has been
the case with Alaska's salmon. 1t
was noticed here several years ago
that the natural supply of salmon
was diminishing. That could not be
so readily seen at Washington as
the statistics for the different years
pack showed a steady and great IN
crease UP to 1918. This came from
the very rapid building up OF the in
dustry and also from the increase
of the various methods of catching
salmon. traps and gear of all kinds
having meanwhile been very greatly
added to from year to year.
Hatcheries have been operated for
many years in Alaska by the can
neries. The work was all carried on
with the best of intentions. but 1t Is
now believed that, although at very
considerable expense. it was largely.
and some claim almost entirely. vast
ed. 1t was too artificial. The young
fish were propagated in the hatch
cries in vast numbers, but with no
attempt at lessening their natural en-
emies. particularly the predatory fish
which actually greatly increased In
number and fatteAed on the millions
OF young sockeye salmon turned loose
from those hatcheries. The Dolly
Warden trout evidently did the most
damage. The results were similar
The hatcheries were evil
IDENTIFY best conducted in the state OF
Washington. where they were nu-
merous and some tvo hundred and
fifty millions OF salmon fry were an