348 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



without further preparation, though it is thought to be improved by 

 the addition of a little vinegar or lemon-juice. Pressed caviare is a 

 favorite with Eussian soldiers, who are said to take a liberal supply in 

 their knapsacks whenever they are going on a long march. Improve- 

 ments might be made, no doubt, in the preparation of American ca- 

 viare, and the subject is worthy of receiving the especial attention of 

 packers. 

 Scientific Amebic an, July 26, 1883. 



173.— THE ClTIiTIVATION OF THE SEA.* 



By I>r. KARL YON SCHERZER. 



Yesterday's meeting of the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge 

 {Gemeinnutzige OeseJIschaft) was taken up by an exceedingly interesting 

 and instructive lecture by the ministerial counselor, Dr. von Scherzer, 

 on the subject of " The Cultivation of the Sea." 



" Neptune's empire is far more fertile than the most productive field. 

 There are no waste places in the water as there are on the land, and it 

 is only owing to the comparative ignorance as regards nature's institu- 

 tions and purposes that thus far aquatic animal and vegetable life has 

 been cultivated only to a very limited degree. How many thousand 

 square miles of virgin soil would have to be plowed to i^roduce unin- 

 terruptedly as much nutritive substance as the vast sea produces 

 without ever becoming exhausted ! The constant and rapid increase 

 of x)opulation, in connection with its constantly-increasing demand for 

 food, makes a corresponding increase of the articles of food an absolute 

 and urgent necessity. Agriculture is encroaching upon the jiasture- 

 grounds which are needed for stock-raising, and threatens to make 

 meat still more expensive than it is at present. For this reason it 

 seems the part of true wisdom to benefit mankind by supplementing 

 the in sufficient harvests of the fields by the harvests of the watei^y 

 empire." 



In this connection Dr. von Scherzer in his lecture gave a vast number 

 of highly-interesting facts, which deserve to be known in wider circles. 



In Great Britain 120,000 men and 37,000 boats are engaged in the 

 fisheries proper (not including the various manufactures of fishery 

 products), and the capital invested in this maritime industry amounts 

 to about 1,000,000,000 marks ($238,000,000). The quantity of fish an- 

 nually caught in British waters amounts to about 000,000 tons, so that 

 on an average every fisherman annually catches 5 tons of fish. At 

 Billingsgate, the famous London fish-market, about 800,000 pounds of 

 fresh fish are sold every day, which as to nutritive matter corresponds 



* Die Bewirthscha/tung des Meeres. In Leipziger Tageblatt nnd Anzeiger. Leipsic, 

 March 13, laS4. Trar>«lated from the German by Heeman Jacobson. 



