REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXI 



demand. There are, however, manj^ modes of preparation which can 

 be made use of to meet the wants of new markets, and thus enter more 

 efificieutly into competition with European nations for European trade, 

 as well as for that of the West Indies and South America. 



A great advance has already been made toward this desired improve- 

 ment since the Centennial Exhibition of 187G, where many methods of 

 curing and putting up fish were shown in the foreign sections that were 

 almost entirely unknown in America. Notably among these were the 

 preparations of sardines and other species of lierring, in oil, as well as 

 in spiced juices. ■ Quite recently this industry has been well established 

 in Maine, amounting to a value of millions of dollars, and there are 

 many other parts of the country where the same work can be done with 

 other kinds of fish. The whole subject is receiving the careful consid- 

 eration of the Commission, and numerons facts bearing upon it have 

 been announced in its reports and bulletins. 



G. The work of increasing the supply of valuable fishes in the waters 

 of the United States, whether by artificial propagation or by trans- 

 plantation, although very successful, may be considered as yet in its 

 infancy. 



It must be remembered that the agencies which have tended to dimin- 

 ish the abundance of the fish have been at work for mawy years, and 

 are increasing in an enormous ratio. This, taken in connection with 

 the rapid multiplication of the population of the United States, makes 

 the work an extremely difficult one. 



If the general conditions remained the same as they were fifty years 

 ago it would be a very simple thing to restore the ibrmer equilibrium. 



At that time, it must be remembered, the methods of preservation 

 and of wholesale transfer, by means of ice, were not known, while the 

 means of quick transportation were very limited. Hence a small num- 

 ber of fish supplied fully the demand, with the exception, of course, of 

 species that were salted down, like the cod, the mackerel, and the her- 

 rings (including the shad). At that time a comparatively small quan- 

 tity supplied the demand for fresh fish, and it was easy to more than 

 meet the demand. Now, however, the conditions are entirely changed. 

 The whole country participates in the benefits of a large cai^ture of fish, 

 and there is no danger of glutting the market, since any surplus can 

 be immediately frozen and shipped to a distance or held until the occur- 

 rence of a renewed demand. 



Another impediment to the rapid accomplishment of the desired re- 

 sult is the absence of concurrent i^rotective legislation of a siifficiently 

 stringent character to prevent unnecessary waste of the fish during the 

 critical period of spawning, and the erection or maintenance of imped- 

 iments to their movements in reaching the spawning grounds. This is 

 esjiecially the case with the shad and the salmon, where the simple con- 

 struction of an impassable dam, or the erection of a factory discharging 

 its poisonous waste into the water, may, in a few years, entirely exter- 

 minate a successful and valuable fishery. 



