42 FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES, LAKE OF THE WOODS, AND RAINY 
LAKE IN 1917. 
A statistical canvass of the fisheries of the Great Lakes, including 
Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, and Lakes Kabetogama and La Croix, 
was made during the year for the calendar year 1917. 
The number of persons engaged in the fisheries of these waters in 
1917 was 9,416; the investment was $10,732,879; and the products 
amounted to 105,926,392 pounds, valued at $6,416,477. 
In the fisheries of the Great Lakes the number of persons engaged 
was 9,221; the investment in vessels, boats, fishing apparatus, shore 
and accessory property, and cash capital was $10,555,669; and the 
products amounted to 103,759,223 pounds; valued at $6,297,969. 
The principal species taken, including fresh, salted, and smoked fish, 
were carp, 7,163,347 pounds, valued at $334,888; ciscoes, 53,429,325 
pounds, valued at $2,609,917; blue pike, 2,102,803 pounds, valued at 
$140,025; wall-eyed pike, 2,496,691 pounds, valued at $298,271; sau- 
ger, 3,929,172 pounds, valued at $240,035; sheepshead or drum, 
2,901,994 pounds, valued at $70,936; suckers, 5,361,138 pounds, 
valued at $204,825; lake trout, 13,344,139 pounds, valued at $1,286,- 
704; whitefish, 6,190,748 pounds, valued at $723,167; and yellow 
erch, 4,206,011 pounds, valued at $245,223. The ciscoes include 
ake herring, chub, longjaw, bluefin or blackfin, and tullibee. 
Compared with the returns for 1908, published by the Bureau of the 
Census, there was an increase of 8.06 per cent in the number of 
persons engaged, and of 119.27 per cent in the amount of capital 
invested, but there was a decrease of 2.69 per cent in the quantity, 
with an increase of 67.14 per cent in the value of the products. There 
was a large increase in the catch of burbot, cisco or lake herring, 
sheepshead or drum, and lake trout, but a decrease in carp, pike, 
pike perch, whitefish, and a number of other species. Compared 
with the statistics for 1903, published by the Bureau, there was a 
decrease of 1.20 per cent in the number of persons engaged, but an 
increase of 41.22 per cent in the amount of capital invested, and of 
20.37 per cent in the quantity, and 129.39 per cent in the value of 
the products. There was considerable increase in nearly all of the 
more important species except pike perch, lake trout, and yellow 
perch. The increase in rbot he possibly some of the other 
| Epes, is, no doubt, due to the work of the Bureau in encouraging 
the more extensive use as food of species heretofore little used for 
that purpose. 
In the fisheries of Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake the number 
of persons engaged was 195; the investment was $177,210; and the 
products amounted to 2,167,169 pounds, valued at $118,508. The 
principal species taken were ciscoes, pike, wall-eyed pike, suckers, 
and whitetiat: 
