PROTECTION OF FRESil-VVATER MUSSELS. 5 



now practically depleted^ Wherein is the benefit to Illinois, when 

 only one fisherman can engage in shelling to-day where six worked 

 with profit five yeai-s ago? "Wliat profit will xVrkansas find, when its 

 rivers are now the scene of the most exhaustive mussel fishery ever 

 known and the future is being robbed by the removal of infant shells 

 that are .shipped to the markets to be subsequently thrown into the 

 discanl by the manufacturers as too small for any useful purpose? 



THE INTERESTS OF THE COMMUNITY. 



An earlier general interest in the subject would have bee^i 

 awakened had there been a better knowledge of the importance of 

 shelling industries to the communities at large. As an illustration, 

 the case of Madison, Ark., may be mentioned. The town itself has 

 a population of about 300 and is supported by lumbering, farming, 

 and fishing industries. During each of the past two years shells 

 and pearls have been marketed at this place to the value of about 

 $20,000. This was a crop that could be counted upon regardless of 

 weather conditions during the season, and it constituted a substan- 

 tial element in the income of the community at large. Can this 

 income be counted upon in the future? A dozen years ago fisher- 

 men made their wages when shells brought $4 per ton, and they can 

 do no better at this time, when they receive $23 per ton. In 1913 they 

 took 200 to 300 pounds per day, where originally they made daily 

 hauls of 1,000 to 1,800 pounds. The shells are now, it appears, about 

 one-sixth as abundant as they were a dozen years ago. This is a 

 rapid rate of depletion, and it is evident that the future can have 

 little to offer unless something is done to insure the self -perpetuation 

 of the mussel beds. 



The town of Black Rock, Ark., which has a population of about 

 1,000, offers an illustration where both fishing and manufacture 

 are involved. It is estimated that approximately $50,000 is brought 

 into the town and the territory about it each year, of which by 

 far the greater amount is paid out in the town of Black Ivock itself. 

 "What does the future hold for this place? Reliable information 

 shows that while a few years ago a sheller could take 1,200 pounds 

 or more per day from the Black River at Black Rock, the daily 

 catches now run from 100 to 200 pounds. Although shells are bring- 

 ing about $20 per ton, there is scarcely a daily wage to be made, 

 and as a consequence the shell fishery immediately about Black 

 Rock is almost negligible. The sh.elling is now prosecuted princi- 

 pally above Black Rock, in the upper waters and tributaries of the 

 Black River, as about Pocahontas and elsewhere. The process of 

 depletion is unchecked and the condition is clearly such as to awaken 

 the enlightened sentiment of the community and the State at large 



