{7] PLAN OF INQUIRY FOR FISHERY CENSUS. 9 
Chicago (general fish trade), 
San Francisco, 
and other cities. 
D.—CUSTOM-HOUSE RETURNS. 
Much valuable information will be obtained from the new system of 
circulars requiring information on specified points from vessels in the 
off-shore fisheries. These were put in use in September, 1878, and in 
1880 their results will be available for a period of two years. 
A fuller schedule of questions has been prepared for the use of collect- 
ors of customs in gathering statistics of the shore fisheries. It is to be 
hoped that this will be adopted; its use will add largely to the store of 
information regarding the products of the fisheries. 
E.—SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS. 
Certain branches of trade which are in the hands of a distinct class of 
men are well worthy of special investigation. Chief among these is the 
oyster trade, which absorbs more capital than all the other branches of 
the fisheries, and which has never been thoroughly studied. A special 
canvasser should devote several months to the oyster trade. 
The sponge trade also deserves a study of two or three months by a 
competent investigator. The subject of the whale fishery has been ex- 
hausted in some of its phases, but requires much additional study. 
The menhaden fishery and its relations to agriculture also deserve 
further attention. 
F.—MATERIAL ALREADY ACCUMULATED. 
_ The Fish Commission has in its possession 20,000 or 30,000 pages of 
manuscript, which may be directly utilized in this investigation, since 
these represent work accomplished in the various lines of investigation 
already spoken of. 
Several circulars have already been sent out relating to the general 
subject of the fisheries, the fishery marine, and the special history of the 
cod, herring, mackerel, manhaden, mullet, etc. The answers to these 
circulars are now awaiting collation. 
G.—CoMPILATION. 
Much has already been done toward compiling as fully as possible a 
statistical history of the fisheries. The reports of the Treasury Depart- 
ment, of the Bureau of Statistics and Navigation, and of the various 
special commissions and experts who have studied the fisheries, are to 
be utilized to the fullest extent, as well as all published accounts of the 
American fisheries from the earliest times. 
