The Scallops 351 



the struggle that many are compelled to make for 

 food. 



It would be fortunate if the nation might wake to the 

 fact that there are in the seas immense quantities of 

 palatable and wholesome food not yet utilized. Custom 

 interferes with the introduction of such food in many 

 cases, but custom in this matter has been changed many 

 times in the past, and it is easier now than it has been 

 to consider all matters on their merits. 



The natural supply of many of the best of marine 

 foods has been misused and dissipated. So it has been 

 with useful terrestrial animals and plants. To have di- 

 rected nature so that these were improved for human 

 use and increased almost without limit, is one of man's 

 greatest achievements. Many of the inhabitants of the 

 ocean also are within his control, as he has already 

 demonstrated in oyster culture and in the artificial prop- 

 agation of many fishes. There is no reason to doubt 

 that the harvest of many other marine forms will eventu- 

 ally become many times more abundant than the most 

 bountiful that nature ever produced unaided. 



