Coker. — Fresh-water Mitssels 47 



success. The slowly growing species, originally the most 

 abundant and widely distributed, may be reduced to prac- 

 tical extermination and the waters to which they are 

 best adapted will become barren of mussels. We will 

 have lost the half of our resources, rivers and states now 

 productive of mussels will become unproductive, and the 

 industry and the country will have suffered an entirely 

 unnecessary loss. 



Protection and propagation may well go hand in hand. 

 They are mutually complementary measures ; but certain- 

 ly the protective measures are those which it seems most 

 inexcusable to neglect. 



V. By Whom Can Action Be Taken for the Preservation 

 of Fresh-water Mussels? 



The mussels are, naturally, of value to those who find 

 in them a means of livelihood or a source of profit. Such 

 are the shellers and manufacturers distributed through 

 some twenty-five states. It is to be remembered, how- 

 ever, that ownership of the mussels, as of fish, is vested 

 in individuals only after they are captured and removed 

 from the public waters, and this is too late for the exer- 

 cise of proper measures of protection. Even if actuated 

 by an earnest desire to conduct operations in the most 

 prudent and intelligent way, neither shellers nor manu- 

 facturers have the power to exercise the concerted and 

 forceful actions essential for the proper regulation of the 

 fishery. 



Ownership of the resources of public waters is claimed 

 by the several states, and it behooves the representatives 

 of the power of these states to unite a feeling of custo- 

 dianship with an investiture of ownership. The mussel 

 beds are not farmed out, and no responsibilities are dele- 

 gated to those who work them. The owner of land in fee 

 simple is not only interested in the continued productiv- 

 ity of his holdings, but, if he possesses intelligence, he 

 shapes his plans and his operations to insure an undimin- 

 ished fertility. The lessee is interested for the period of 

 his lease, or he may be bound by terms that require his 



