FOOD FROM THE SEA. B81 
By way of comparison, and to give you some idea of the relative 
importance of the industry, similar figures for one or two other sources 
of our food supply may be of interest. In the same year 1913, 13 million 
tons of wheat were grown in the United Kingdom, as against the 1} 
million tons of fish landed, the wheat being valued somewhere about 
13 million pounds, as against 15 million pounds for the fish. Onported 
wheat was 54 million tons, valued at 44 milion pounds. Imported beef 
was valued at 16 million pounds, imported mutton at 1] muthion. 
It should be added, however, that one-third of the total value of the 
fish landed is attributable to herrings, which were salted and exported 
chiefly to Germany and Russia, the sum received for these fish being 5 
roillion pounds. 
It is interesting to compare the value of fish landed in the United 
Kingdom with that of fish landed in other European countries. Of the 
total value of sea-fish landed in Europe in 1910, 473 per cent (very nearly 
one-half) stands to the credit of British fisheries, other countries showing 
France, 19 per cent ; Norway, 10 per cent ; Germany, 7 per cent ; Hol- 
land, 7 per cent ; Sweden, 3 per cent ; Denmark, 3 per cent; Belgium, 
1 per cent ; Russia, | per cent. 
From these figures you will see what a preponderating part our islands 
take in the total yield of the fisheries. 
Now the two pressing questions which present themselves, from the 
practical point of view, are: Do we at present make the best possible 
use of the harvest of the fishing grounds ? And how can the yield of human 
food in the form of fish be increased ? 
As a matter of fact from year to year, for many years past, the total 
quantity and the total value of the fish landed in this country have both 
shown a steady and continuous increase. Hven since the year 1890, 
when the industry of steam-trawling was already in full swing, the total 
landings have doubled both in quantity and in value. This inerease has 
been brought about entirely by increasing the number and the power of 
the fishing vessels and extending the areas over which they have worked. 
To-day the region worked by the steam-trawlers, which bring their fish 
in ice to the English market, extends northwards to the Barent’s Sea, 
off the north coast of Russia—the so-called White Sea grounds to 
Iceland and the Faroes, and southwards through the Bay of Biscay to 
the banks off the coast of Morocco, trawling being carried on to a depth 
of 200 fathoms or even more. Doubtless this process of increasing the 
power of fishing vessels and extending the area over which they fish will 
still continue. Trawlers have already made experimental voyages to the 
Banks of Newfoundland, and halibut from the Pacific Coast of Canada 
has been sent ina frozen state to the London market. This kind of develop- 
