Downing. — Production and Destruction 33 



five pounds, an average of three fish to the pound. Although the 

 herring, being fully matured, were in a fair state of preservation 

 and still fit for food, the whitefish were so soft and mushy that 

 they were entirely worthless and the dealer afterward informed 

 me that they were all sorted out and sent to the reduction plant 

 for fertilizer, and that just one-third of this fifty barrel shipment 

 were these undersized whitefish. This is but one instance and one 

 shipment. 



The adult whitefish as they are taken in Lake Erie run 

 about two and a half pounds to the fish, so that it requires 

 eight hundred of them to weigh a ton. If the undersized 

 fish are taken, those weighing a half or a third of a pound 

 each, then it takes from four to six thousand of them to 

 weigh a ton, for every ton of them placed upon the market 

 there is an absolute destruction of from 3,000 to 5,200 fish in actual 

 count. Moreover in many cases, as in the one cited above, they 

 reach the market in a worthless condition and the makings of 

 from five to six tons of the very best food fish have been totally 

 destroyed without profit to any one. Nor is this all the destruc- 

 tion resulting from the taking of these undersized fish. It is but 

 fair to assume that one half of them were females and as they 

 were all taken while immature they have had no chance to repro- 

 duce. The destruction of eggs corresponds to the destruction 

 of fish, and as the average number of eggs to the fish can be placed 

 at twenty-five thousand, then for every ton of fish there has 

 been destroyed from forty to sixty-five million of eggs. 



In the case of the pike-perch we have still a greater destruction 

 both in numbers of fish and eggs for the reason that the fish are 

 placed upon the market smaller in size, requiring a greater number 

 to the ton, and the average number of eggs to the fish is about 

 four times as great, so that even though the fish be taken of the 

 same size, the destruction of pike-perch eggs reaches the enormous 

 number of from 160 to 260 millions for every ton of these immature 

 fish placed upon the market. 



Then there is the financial loss. If we place the price at ten 

 cents a pound, the fisherman himself is losing from $320 to $520 

 dollars in weight alone for every such ton placed upon the market, 

 and considering the difference in price between the small and the 



