BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 235 



The true value of fishery expositions to the Bohusliin herring salteries 

 may be learned from the fact that soon after the Berlin Exposition, 

 which had decreed gold medals to the Bohusliin salteries for the excel- 

 lence of their productions, a notice was inserted in the Bohusliin papers, 

 by the most prominent Gottenburg fish-dealers, that, owing to the 

 inferior character of the Bohusliin salt herring, they would no longer 

 deal in this article. Truly a brilliant result of the exposition prizes! 



Whenever the introduction into Sweden of improved methods of pre- 

 paring fish is urged, it is met with indifference or opposition from those 

 of our salters who have gained prizes at expositions, who think that they 

 represent the very perfection of this industry and consider themselves 

 the only models worthy of imitation. These prizes which, at the exposi- 

 tions, are generally given in proportion to the space occupied by a coun- 

 try, and in the distribution of which personal motives are frequently 

 all powerful, and which, therefore, are by no means absolute proofs of 

 the excellence of the articles which have gained prizes, have, together 

 with newspaper articles highly laudatory of the productions of their 

 own country, contributed not a little towards spreading erroneous ideas 

 among the public and also towards throwing difficulties in the way of 

 improvements, which will only be introduced when the opinion has 

 gained ground that they are absolutly needed. The expositions have 

 also produced a number of far-famed exposition heroes, who live on the 

 praise bestowed on them by these expositions, assert an undue influ- 

 ence over the industries, and have even gone so far as to obtain prizes 

 for their friends and favorites. 



The circumstance that expositions are in such high favor with the 

 general public is, no doubt, owing to the manner in which they have 

 rJattered the vanity, not only of some exhibitors, but also of eutire 

 nations. As the participation in an exposition does not involve any 

 expense to the exhibitors, and as every one, of course, hopes to gain a 

 prize, it is not astonishing that the applications are so numerous, 

 especially as no effort is spared to go beyond all bounds in the prepara- 

 tions for such expositions. These expositions have very much the same 

 attraction to manufacturers as lotteries, where the government, so to 

 speak, furnishes the tickets and the exhibitor only loans his apparatus 

 or the product of his industry for exhibition. Many a person feels his 

 vanity tickled by the knowledge that he has taken part in a world's 

 exposition, and that his name has figured in the catalogue, more espe- 

 cially as these honors may be gained without any expense: 



Professor Smitt says that Sweden, in order to remove the dispropor- 

 tion between her importation and exportation of fishery products, 

 should, "in the first place, aim at increasing the value of her deep-sea 

 fisheries and of her salmon fisheries." Strange to say, the professor 

 seems to have abandoned all hope of ever improving the Baltic and 

 Kattegat fisheries. To improve these two important fisheries, which 

 are full of promise, experience has taught us that far different and more 



