192 American Fisheries Society 



It appears to have been fairly demonstrated that rod 

 and gun clubs and fish and game protective societies can- 

 not alone be depended on to foster a popular support for 

 progress in fish-culture. Greater liberality and greater 

 publicity such as are revolutionizing the methods of agri- 

 culture are what is needed. The present Commissioner 

 of Fisheries has for some years been practically alone in 

 promoting popular publicity — relating to fish culture and 

 fisheries. 



The National Geographic Society is an example of what 

 can be accomplished in the building of a society by liberal 

 and efficient management. It has not, like the Fisheries 

 Society, a great economic value to uphold it, but only 

 scientific sentiment, and yet men are proud of the honor 

 of membership in it. 



//. Advocating the stocking of the rivers of the East- 

 ern United States with pearl mussels. 



Notwithstanding the wide range and extent of the in- 

 vestigations relating to pearl mussel industry by the 

 United States Bureau of Fisheries recording a threatened 

 destruction of the industry through extinction of the 

 mussels, the writer has seen no mention of any movement 

 to stock the waters of the eastern United States with 

 them. East of the Alleghenies are many noble rivers 

 with hundreds of tributaries which should be well 

 adapted to them and which could be easily stocked. The 

 writer has a shell of one of these mussels which he took 

 from the Little Miami River and which is seven inches 

 long and five inches broad with a maximum thickness of 

 about three-quarters of an inch. 



It is evident that in pursuing this industry there is a 

 large economic waste that possibly might be prevented 

 by drying the meat of the mussels and grinding it for 

 food for fowls. 



The same idea might also be applied to certain marine 

 life that is either wasted or is not taken for want of a 

 market which the poultry industry might possibly supply. 



