REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 21 
Although culinary demonstrations are not strictly a part of the 
scientific inquiries, nevertheless it has been found impossible to dis- 
sociate them from the work of investigation. In some cases skilled 
cooks have been engaged in association with the investigators or in- 
dependently, and demonstrations have been given at State or county 
fairs, before women’s organizations, or men’s clubs, or in open meet- 
ings, whenever the public could be most effectively reached. In this 
way it has been possible to bridge completely and promptly the com- 
mon gap between the discovery of useful facts and the final practical 
application in the individual household of the knowledge gained. 
In such public services the Bureau has been enabled to cooperate with 
various bureaus of the Department of Agriculture, notably with the 
States Relations Service and with the United States Food Admin- 
istration. 
The lack of vessels for offshore investigations has made it impos- 
sible to make explorations of oceanic fishing grounds. Reference 
may be made, however, to an investigation of an alleged waste of 
fishes on the coast of Cape Cod. It was learned that certain kinds 
of fishes, especially the whiting, were being taken in the trap nets 
in quantities far in excess of the capacities of the cold-storage plants, 
as well as of the market demand for fresh fish of these kinds. The 
Bureau, therefore, took steps with some success to encourage the 
preservation of such fishes and to stimulate a public demand for the 
prepared product. 
INVESTIGATIONS RELATING TO SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 
The carp has.long been the most important commercial fish living 
exclusively in fresh waters. There has been a good demand for carp 
in the principal cities, and, because of the increased demand for fish 
which has developed during the recent food shortage, the prices of 
carp have risen to relatively high figures. Nearly all of the carp for 
market have been shipped from a few States in the Middle West. 
Nevertheless, carp is known to occur in abundance over a large part 
of the country. In many waters carp has only a relative abundance 
and could not be counted on as a source of supply for commercial 
fishery. Nevertheless, these small supplies in the aggregate consti- 
tute a considerable quantity of food, and. if they were more generally 
used in local markets, a substantial reduction would result in the 
quantity of other foods it would be necessary to import into the sev- 
eral communities. 
It is commonly recognized that when prepared in an offhand man- 
ner the carp makes a table dish of inferior quality. It is not so 
generally known that when properly prepared and served the carp 
takes a very favorable rank among other food fishes. In the effort to 
popularize this fish, the Bureau has prepared and published an 
economic circular giving an account of the food value of the carp, 
with recipes for its proper preparation. Effective posters were also 
given wide distribution directing attention to this neglected resource 
and bearing information that the circulars could be had on applica- 
tion to the Bureau. 
Believing that there were supplies of carp in some of the southern 
States sufficient to support a commercial fishery, the Bureau under- 
