8 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 
grade of oil and fertilizer. It was represented that, by the use of 
material that would otherwise be wasted, valuable by-products would 
result that would pay for the plant in the first season of its operation. 
On July 2, 1918, pursuant to a formal presentation of the matter 
on June 23, 1918, the President allotted $125,000 to permit the erec- 
tion and maintenance of a fisheries- products laboratory in Wash- 
ington, D. C. The primary purpose of the laboratory is to induce 
increased production and consumption of aquatic foods through the 
dissemination of knowledge of improved methods of preservation. 
PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES. 
PROGRESS OF FISH CULTURE. 
The general trend and progress of Federal fish culture may be re- 
garded as satisfactory. Some of the great commercial fisheries which, 
because of their magnitude and intensity, have a constant tendency to 
affect adversely the abundance of the fishes sought have been brought 
well within the control of the fish-culturist and may, in general, be 
maintained at a high level because of the advances that have been 
made in artificial propagation, supplemented by minimum rational 
restrictions. 
Other fisheries, of which the lobster and sturgeon are conspicuous 
examples, have long been prosecuted in such flagrant and notorious 
disregard of the laws of nature and of man that artificial propagation 
seems hopeless, and dependence thereon only serves to condone per- 
nicious practices. An exception should, of course, be made in the case 
of lobster rearing which, if conducted on a sufficiently extensive scale 
in the principal centers of the lobster fishery, and supported by local 
popular sentiment in favor of lobster conservation, would undoubt- 
edly do much to arrest the decline and restore depleted waters. 
Of the littoral marine fishes that have come under artificial propa- 
gation, the winter flounder is most extensively hatched and supports 
the largest fishery. It is most worthy of continued attention at the 
hands of the fish-culturist, because of its inherent qualities and be- 
cause its abundance may readily be affected, favorably or unfavor- 
ably, by man. 
Judged by mere numbers, the fish-cultural work of the Bureau in 
the fiscal year 1918 showed a decrease of approximately 20 per cent 
compared with 1917. The aggregate output of the hatcheries was 
4,098,105,000. The smaller production was chiefly attributable to 
adverse weather conditions prevailing during the spawning time of 
various commercial fishes whose eggs are handled in large numbers, 
particularly the cod, pollock, and pike perch. Other species which 
showed a reduced output were shad, cisco, humpback and chum sal- 
mons, lake trout, smelt, white perch, and lobster. An increase is to 
be noted in the production of buffalofish, carp, catfish, whitefish, 
chinook and sockeye salmons, yellow perch, and winter flounder. 
From the very nature of the fish-cultural work, the young of some 
of the species hatched are planted as fry, and this will no doubt 
continue to be the practice for many years to come, perhaps indefi- 
nitely. The fishes so handled are those whose eggs are obtained in 
comparatively large numbers from the commercial fishermen and 
whose fry have a very short yolk-sac stage, common examples being 
the whitefish, shad, pike perch, yellow perch, striped bass, and vari- 
