8 FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Through these demonstrations large numbers of women have 
learned that fish, when properly cooked, are most delicious, and that 
many of the cheaper varieties are fully the equal of some of the better- 
known, high-priced species. In addition, the fish dealers everywhere 
have been enthusiastic in the reports of increased sales of fish demon- 
strated. The need of more educational work of this character is 
evidenced at all points visited. 
NEED OF LABORATORIES FOR THE SOLUTION OF THE PRACTICAL 
PROBLEMS OF THE INDUSTRY. 
Agriculture has benefited greatly by the work of the agricultural 
experiment stations, both Federal and State, through colleges devoted 
to the training of men and women for the industry, and through the 
study of the problems by highly skilled experts. The fisheries, the 
other great food-producing industry, with their mnumerable problems, 
have lacked and suffered for lack of these advantages, with the 
result that the methods in practice have been developed empirically, 
without definite knowledge of the basic principles governing the oper- 
ations or without their application to the best and most economical 
advantage. The fact that a method has worked, has sufficed. Fuel, 
time, labor, and food are wasted, and fisheries remain undeveloped 
for want of satisfactory methods of preservation and markets for the 
products. 
The preservation of fish by salting will serve to illustrate. Al- 
though this has been practiced for centuries, there has been little 
improvement in the methods; large quantities of cured fish are lost 
annually by spoilage, and still larger quantities of fresh fish, for 
which no ready or accessible markets exist, are thrown away because 
of the possibility of loss if cured. The man in the industry is con- 
fronted with innumerable problems of spoilage, quality, color, or 
practical methods, and the like, problems which should be solved if 
the industry is to progress, but which remain unsolved because the 
individual lacks the facilities and frequently the training necessary 
to their solution. 
There is also an underconsumption of fish, due, in part, to the 
inferior quality of much that is placed on the market, and, in part, 
to the consumer’s ignorance of the dietetic qualities and peculiarities 
of the various species and their consequent improper preparation for 
the table. As described above, the increasing consumption of fish 
in districts where the Bureau educated the public to the merits of 
fish as food by means of lectures, demonstrations, placards, and cir- 
culars but serves to emphasize the need of further public educational 
work along such lines. 
For years the Bureau has been handicapped in this field for lack 
of facilities for practical demonstration and experimentation in the 
methods of preparing and preserving fishery products. It has held 
that it should be provided with adequate equipment and personnel 
to render effective aid to the industry, to do in its particular field 
what the agricultural experiment station does for agriculture, and 
that it could accomplish some important results in some fields within 
a short period of time. 
