4 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



After unavoidable delays arising from the conditions of national 

 emergency, the new laboratory was completed and occupied in 

 August, 1920. Again there was a demand upon the Bureau for the 

 observance of exercises of dedication, and these were set for October 

 7, in connection with a Conference Regarding the Application of 

 Science to the Utilization and Preservation of the Resources of our 

 Interior Waters (October 7 and 8). The occasion was made impres- 

 sive, helpful, and inspiring through the whole-hearted cooperation of 

 representatives of the Government, business men, and scientists from 

 the leading American universities. Recognition of the national 

 significance of this biological station for investigation of problems of 

 fresh waters was attested by the presence of delegates from 22 uni- 

 versities and colleges and from two independent scientific organiza- 

 tions, representing 14 States, from California on the west to Massa- 

 chusetts on the east, from Oklahoma and Florida on the south to 

 Wisconsin and Michigan on the north. 



The station serves as a base of operations for a large part of the 

 scientific work of the Bureau of Fisheries in the Mississippi Basin. 

 A primary activity is the propagation of pearly fresh-water mussels ; 

 but not less significant are its functions in experimental fish culture, 

 in investigations of various fresh-water fishery problems, and in 

 promoting both a fuller utilization of aquatic products and a broader 

 mterest in the protection of aquatic resources, in order that the 

 future, as well as the present, may be properly served. 



Through field parties the activities of the station have been ex- 

 tended into most of the States of the Mississippi Basin, and the results 

 of work done go much further than the localities in which operations 

 are conducted. The benefits of service to the mussel industries are 

 felt not only where mussel fishing, or clamming, is practiced, but 

 wherever mussels are manufactured into the finished products of 

 commerce — in New York and Massachusetts, as well as in Wisconsin 

 and Iowa; they are experienced, too, though Lmconsciousl3^ by all 

 who are consumers or utilizers of buttons. The demonstration at 

 Fairport of the feasibility of propagating the chahnel cattish in ponds 

 can be made useful for the increase of food supply in other parts of the 

 United States. The propagation and distribution of some hundreds 

 of milhons of buffalofish fry in public waters each year is the direct 

 result of experiments originally conducted at the Fairport station. 

 The broader utilization of fishes formerly considered ''coarse" or 

 useless is in part the result of practical experiments in smoking fish, 

 conducted during several years at this station. The varied services 

 of the station will be described and illustrated more fully in later 

 pages. 



PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT. 



Every station of the Bureau is regarded as an agency through which 

 as complete a public service is to be rendered as conditions allow, but 

 it is evident that the Fairport station combines in a somewhat unique 

 way the functions of a fisheries biological station and a fish-cultural 

 experiment station. This it does because of the provisions of person- 

 nel and equipment authorized by the Congress and because of the 

 conditions of its location and origin. 



There is attached to the station a small permanent stafl" of scien- 

 tists, fish-culturists, and" other employees necessary for continuous 



