Coker. — Fresh-water Mussels 45 



seeing the impending depletion of such resources, the fed- 

 eral government began an investigation of the mussels 

 more than a dozen years ago. Out of this investigation, 

 after some time, there grew a method of propagation, 

 and this has been put into practice, as yet in a somewhat 

 limited way. It is evident that the work of propagation 

 is bearing fruit in certain regions. 



The protection of fresh-water mussels is a mode of 

 conservation to which recourse is not yet had in any 

 comprehensive and effective way. One or two states rec- 

 ognize the mussel on their statute books by some sort of 

 law prohibiting a particular apparatus or making a 

 closed season of a few months each year. The states of 

 Minnesota and Illinois passed laws at the latest sessions 

 of their legislatures, which seemed to embody the logical 

 features of a scheme of conservation — a limit on the size 

 of mussels that may be taken (ensuring the continuation 

 of a breeding stock and the earlier abandonment of a 

 depleted bed) and the closure of depleted regions for 

 periods of years, (guaranteeing an opportunity for natu- 

 ral recuperation). The Minnesota enactment was, how- 

 ever, made contingent upon the passage of a similar law 

 by the State of Wisconsin, and, as Wisconsin failed to 

 pass the bill when introduced into its legislature, the 

 Minnesota law remains as yet without effect. The De- 

 partment of Conservation of Louisiana is understood to 

 be giving serious consideration to the protection and 

 utilization of its mussel resources, and that state has the 

 opportunity to become a leader in giving adequate effect 

 to a plan of conservation of fresh-water mussels. 



There appears to be a sort of incongruity in endeavor- 

 ing to propagate that which we do not regard as of suf- 

 ficient value to protect. Is it possible that artificial prop- 

 agation will suffice in itself and make protective restric- 

 tions unnecessary? I think we can say, emphatically not. 

 I have always. believed that, generally speaking, protec- 

 tion was of greater value than artificial propagation. 



It will serve to clear our ideas somewhat to recall that 

 there are a great variety of fresh-water mussels and that 



