10 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 



the Chesapeake Bay region are prepared to produce and market 

 from 2,000 to 5,000 tons of this feed in the 1919 season, provided a 

 sufficient number of users of such feed can be acquainted with its 

 merits and interested to purchase it. In the development of markets 

 and in acquainting farmers with the value of such feeds, the Bureau 

 of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture is lending 

 effective cooperation. It is also conducting hog-feeding experiments 

 with meal made from fish and fishery products, as, for example, men- 

 haden meal, grayfish meal, and shrimp bran, to determine their 

 quality as compared with other feeds. vSuch tests as have been 

 completed indicate that fish meal is fully the equal of tankage. 



On the west coast, including Alaska, the increasing demand for 

 fish meal is reflected in the rapid increase in production. According 

 to the Pacific Fisherman, the production in 1916 amounted to 2,640 

 tons of meal and 776 tons of fertilizer, in 1917 to 5,297 tons of meal 

 and 1,390 tons of fertilizer, and in 1918 to 7,773 tons of meal and 

 802 tons of fertilizer, all of which was inadequate to satisfy the de- 

 mand. In 1918 the reported yield of the menhaden industry of the 

 Atlantic seaboard was 16,017 tons of dried scrap, much of which it 

 is believed could better have been made into fish meal, and 33,187 

 tons of acidulated scrap. 



During the war fish oils commanded unusually high prices, followed 

 b}^ a decided drop after the signing of the armistice. As a result 

 of the increasing demand for these oils, prices have since approached 

 their former high level. The falling off of the flax crop, the lack of 

 supply, and the abnormally high prices of linseed oil have compelled 

 the paint industry to seek new sources of drying oils rec{uired in 

 paints and varnishes. It is believed that in the future menhaden oil 

 and possibly other fish oils will be more extensively used in making 

 certain types of paints and varnishes. Investigations to determine 

 the fitness of various fish oils for such purposes have been arranged 

 for. It is estimated that the production of fish oils in the United 

 States, including Alaska, in 1918 amounted to approximately 

 6,000,000 gallons, of which 3,943,100 gallons were menhaden oil, a 

 considerable increase over 1917 for both items. 



In addition to the foregoing work, the Bureau has given attention 

 to the possibilities of increasing the use of shrimp waste, to the 

 methods of handling fish waste and waste fish employed in California, 

 and to assembling samples of meal and oil for chemical examination, 

 and has furnished a large number of interested correspondents with 

 literature on the subject, including extracts from various publica- 

 tions not readily obtainable, and has placed them in touch with 

 manufacturers of machinery employed in the industry and with 

 markets for the products. 



DEVELOPMENT OF AQUATIC SOURCES OF LEATHER. 



The development of the aquatic leather industry, to which the 

 Bureau has been giving considerable attention, has progressed 

 satisfactorily. Nets of the special type developed by the Bureau for 

 the capture of sharks and other powerful fishes are now being em- 

 ployed in taking these forms in commercial quantities. One leather 

 company has established fishing plants at Morehead City, N. C, and 

 Fort, Myers, Fla., to provide regular supplies of shark hides for tan- 



