Sixt/i Annual Meeting. 93 



to look in every way towards the augmentation of our food 

 supplies. Our national larder should be increased, and it can 

 be done by a better appreciation of the bounties showered down 

 upon us. 



Now I bv no means am desirous of seconding the ideas 

 advanced somewhat at random by some enthusiastic admirers of 

 fish-food, who say, " Give us a greater abundance of sea-produce, 

 and we shall speedily record a fall in the prices of beef and 

 mutton." If such a lowering in the price of beef was possible, 

 it might of course be desirable. But beef in quantity is good, 

 and so is fish. I think that in this country, as in England, the 

 following paragraph, taken from a leading London journal, is 

 quite pertinent in some respects to the situation : 



"The present demand for fish, even with the great organiza- 

 tion which now exists for its supply, can only be partially met ; 

 nor can fish-food ever become so abundant as materially to 

 affect the prices of our other supplies. At certain times 

 throughout the year, when markets become glutted with the 

 commoner kinds of fish, the price falls so as to be almost 

 nominal ; but what is remarkable on the occasion of such gluts 

 is, that however large the supply may be, it can readily be 

 disposed of. By the aid of the telegraph, coupled with quick 

 railway transit, such arrangements may now be made for the 

 disposal of the largest supplies of fish as could not be entered 

 upon fifty years ago, when the produce of the deep was asserted 

 to be much more plentiful than it is at present." 



There is this difference, however. Whereas in England their 

 stock of fish is augmented by many varieties of fish, we restrict 

 ourselves in this country to but few kinds. Englishmen and 

 Scotchmen, rich and poor, eat fish we would turn up our 

 noses at. 



Among some new products which I noticed at the Cen- 

 tennial, there was one, of American origin, which excited the 



