6 FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
lightships and lighthouses. In addition, information regarding the 
construction and operation of lesser known fishing gear and methods 
has been obtained for the use of the fisheries. The need for improve- 
ments in the methods of handling, distributing, and marketing of 
fishery products has been felt, and improvements, such as the exer- 
cise of greater care in handling fish by eliminating the use of pitch- 
forks, the avoidance of needless bruising of the fish, and the adoption 
of some form of precooling on the vessels, has been urged upon the 
producers. Much assistance has been given producers in the securing 
and transporting of materials such as salt, Rorrcls etc., which were 
required for immediate use in preserving fish in abundance. 
In the field of fisheries technology practical application has been 
made of methods developed in the course of its fish-salting investi-. 
gations, and studies have been made and reports prepared on the 
preservation of fish nets and methods of determining the fatness of 
certain fishes. The investigations of the problems of the commer- 
cial fish canner have been continued at San Pedro, Calif. The Bureau 
has continued its efforts to stimulate the saving of waste products of 
the fisheries and their conversion into marketable commodities with 
excellent success. ‘The production of fish meal and fish leather, the 
saving of such articles as shark fins, and the utilization of fish scales 
have matertally increased. 
The statistical activities of the division have included the collec- 
tion of detailed statistics of the vessel fisheries centering at Boston 
and Gloucester, Mass., Portland, Me., and Seattle, Wash., and the 
publication of the results in monthly and annual bulletins; and 
canvasses of the shad fishery of the Hudson River, of the shad and 
alewife fishery of the Potomac River, and of the Maine sardine 
industry, all for the calendar year 1920. A canvass of the fisheries 
of the New England States for the calendar year 1919 was under- 
taken and the field work completed about March 1, 1921. The 
results of these canvasses are contained in the present report, together 
with the detailed tables of the canvass of the fisheries of the South 
Atlantic States for 1918, a summary of the storage holdings of frozen 
fish during 1920, and the quantity of fishery products by species and 
by months for California in 1920. The report also contains statis- 
tical data on the production of fish oils, scrap, and meal, a summary 
of the fisheries of both coasts of Florida in 1918, a summary of the 
fisheries of the Gulf States for various years, certain sponge statis- - 
tics, ete. 
SERVICE. 
Units of the Federal Government such as this division receive an 
appropriation for the rendering of service. It is usually difficult to 
ascertain on a monetary basis the value of the service rendered, and 
the organization is not infrequently criticized as not rendering 
service in proportion to the facilities supplied for its work or through 
misunderstanding of its limitations. It may therefore be of interest 
to refer to the appreciation expressed by competent persons of the 
value of several phases of its work. 
Of the Bureau’s new method of salting fish, a practical demonstra- 
tion of which was given on the St. Johns River, Fla., one writer 
states: 
We consider the information and the demonstration worth thousands of dollars to 
us alone, not saying what it is worth to the industry at large on the St. Johns River. 
