Proceedings Forty-seventh Annual Meeting 61 



the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. There should be increased 

 utilization of the fish wastes. 



I believe the most important biological problem of the nation 

 today is the destructive effect of immense drainage projects carried 

 out at the instigation of petty lawyers and promoters seeking to 

 make profit for themselves. They are entirely neglectful of the 

 great damage resulting from the enormous amount of flood water 

 which is turned into the streams prematurely by draining swamps 

 and lakes in addition to the normal run off. Much of the benefit 

 arising thus from the extension of agricultural areas is negatived 

 by the destruction wrought by flood or drought. Unwise drainage 

 operations may even tend to hasten the progressive drying up of 

 the continent. 



It is estimated that the annual loss from floods in the Mississippi 

 Valley alone averages over $50,000,000.00. It does not require 

 a very large area of land to produce that amount in wheat 

 and there is no reason why we should not develop that land for 

 wheat production and at the same time, by wise selection of the 

 area to be drained, safeguard the inhabitants on the lower river. 

 But because of the lack of co-ordination in the development of 

 these projects in the past we have, so to speak, robbed Peter to 

 pay Paul. 



These questions cannot be settled by the United States alone. 

 We are joined in ties of friendship and brotherhood with our 

 neighbors on the north, Canada, and on the south, Mexico. The 

 evidence of these ties is much stronger at present at the north 

 than at the south, but we cannot help feeling that ultimately, 

 conditions will become adjusted both north and south to greatly 

 benefit the entire continent. 



President Field then introduced Hon. Honore Mercier, Min- 

 ister of Colonization, Mines and Fisheries of the Province of 

 Quebec, who spoke briefly as follows: 



"Mr. President: As I have no special subject assigned to me I 

 will refer briefly to the fisheries with which I am best acquainted, 

 those of the Province of Quebec. These may be divided into two 

 classes, the inland and the coastal fisheries. The control is also 

 divided, the Dominion framing the laws regulating closed seasons 



