8 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 



product have led the Bureau to undertake a special movement to 

 popularize the fish, and an assistant was detailed to visit fishing 

 centers on the Gulf coast for detailed information regarding abun- 

 dance, seasons, etc. Of points on the Florida coast. Cedar Keys 

 appears best suited for the establishment of a fishery, the fish being 

 reported as plentiful throughout the year. An even larger supply 

 appears to be available at Point Isabel, Tex., where about 70 per 

 cent of all fish taken is reported to be black drum. At this place the 

 fish are caught throughout the year with pocket nets; that is, drag 

 seines provided with pockets. The information gathered will be 

 brought to the attention of those interested in establishing a fishery 

 or a cannery for this fish. 



Eff'orts have been put forth to stimulate the production and con- 

 sumption of many other products, including alewives or river her- 

 rings, carp, crevalles, eulachon, red drum, robalo, rockfishes, sea 

 catfish, rays, sharks (fresh, salted, and smoked), the roe and buck- 

 roe of fishes, sea mussels (canned), squid, etc. 



DEMONSTRATIONS IN FISH COOKERY. 



No recent activity of the Bureau in the field of practical fishery 

 work has met with such universal favor among producers, dealers, 

 and consumers as its lectures and demonstrations in the methods of 

 preparing and cooking fish. 



Demonstrations were first given in Seattle, Wash., in May, 1918, 

 with the object of showing housewives the best and most economical 

 methods of preparing and cooking fish and of acquainting them with 

 the merits of many of the common fish and fishery products with 

 which they had little or no acquaintance. This work was extended 

 to 15 other cities and towns in the States of Washington, Oregon, 

 and California, and was highly commended in every center. In 

 February, 1919, when the supplies of fish in the cold storages of 

 the country were about double the normal holdings and there was 

 imminent the possibility that large quantities of this good food might 

 have to be destroyed for lack of markets, the demonstrators were de- 

 tailed to the Midclle West, to give a series of demonstrations in St. 

 Louis, Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. 

 At these meetings housewives were encouraged to use frozen fish and 

 were given instructions in buying and preparing them for the table. 

 Stewards' associations, home demonstration workers, food-conser- 

 vation officials, community-service organizations, and others were 

 interested and benefited by the instructions given. The value of the 

 work was well vouched for by the trade in its reports of increased 

 demand for frozen fish, and many housewives commented on their 

 previous failure to use such fish, believing them to be of poor 

 quality, if not actually unfit for food. In May a successful series of 

 demonstrations was held in Boston and Cambridge, Mass., after 

 which the work was brought to a close; for lack of funds. 



To enable State and local agents of tlie States Relations Service 

 of the Department of Agriculture to carry the benefits of this work 

 to the housewives of their respective communities, demonstrations 

 were given in St. Augustine, Titusvillc, Miami, West Palm Beach, 

 and Key West, Fla.; at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of 



