FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1927 407 



teins of haddock and herring are an excellent supplement for cereals, 

 comparing: favorably with steak, liver, or kidney. They do not 

 supplement legumes well, however. Further work will concern other 

 metabolism studies, since feeding experience has shown fish meal to 

 be most effective in promoting growth. This is probably due to the 

 fact that it contains an easily available source of calcium and phos- 

 phorus, though it also may be due to the fact that the fish come from 

 *^he sea, where there is no deficiency of other raw materials. 



MARKET SURVEYS 



During 1927 the bureau continued to make studies of the whole- 

 sale and retail fishery trade in representative cities and conducted 

 these surveys in St. Louis, Mo., Jacksonville, Fla., and Atlanta, Ga. 

 The complete i-eports are published as Bureau of Fisheries Documents 

 Nos. 1026, 1036, and 1039, respectively. These may be purchased 

 from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, 

 Washington, D. C, at 10 cents each. 



Greater St. Louis. — This city is situated on the Mississippi River 

 near the geographical center of the United States, the center of popu- 

 lation, the center of agricultural production, and the center of many 

 of the sources of raw materials. Being neither eastern nor western, 

 northern nor southern, its population might be expected to represent 

 a typical cross section of American life. 



During 1926, the 12 wholesale firms in St. Louis handled 13,000,000 

 pounds of 74 varieties of fresh and frozen fishery products, with a 

 wholesale value of about $3,200,000. Over one-half of these prod- 

 ucts were received from Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, and 

 Louisiana, while 24 other States and 4 Canadian Provinces contributed 

 the remainder. Of the amount received, about 1,000,000 pounds 

 were reshipped or distributed, largely to the States immediately 

 adjoining Missouri. The remainder was consumed in Greater St. 

 Louis, which had a population of about 1,026,000. Thus, the annual 

 per capita consumption of fresh and frozen fishery products in this 

 area is about 12 pounds in the round or 9 pounds of the edible portion. 

 If the amount of canned or cured fish consumed in this area were to 

 be added, it is believed that the annual per capita consumption of all 

 fishery products would amount to about 15 pounds, which is the 

 average for the entire United States. 



The bulk of the trade (75 per cent) is based on whiting, halibut, 

 buft'alofish, catfish, oysters, and haddock, named in order of impor- 

 tance. Fifteen othei" products constitute 20 per cent, and 53 products 

 make up the remaining 5 per cent of the trade. 



Duiing late years, consumers have changed their preference for 

 various well-liked local species of diminishing supply in the fresh 

 condition to others of abundance and fine quality, frozen, which are 

 obtained from more remote sections. This change, especially the 

 growth in preference for frozen fish, has been an important factor in 

 stabihzing the fisheries trade in St. Louis. Market gluts or famines 

 of fishery products are almost unknown, prices are more uniform 

 over the year, and the trade during the summer months is more 

 active. By this change of preference whiting has entered the trade 

 and now ranks first in volume and value. These fish are taken along 

 the Atlantic coast, frozen there, and shipped in standard boxes to 

 St. Louis, where they are held in storage until needed. They are 



