48 American Fisheries Society 



observance of a course of action that looks to an undi- 

 minishment of values. When, however, as in the case of 

 nearly all our fishery resources including the mussels, 

 ownership and custodianship are retained by the state, 

 the individuals or corporations whose operations may 

 bring about the diminution of a public resource have 

 not the responsibility nor the power to exercise a just 

 and due restraint over themselves and each other. It is 

 therefore proper that the state should impose and enforce 

 such restrictions as will be for the lasting benefit of all. 



Summary and Conclusions. 



(1) While fresh- water mussels are found to a limited 

 extent in many foreign countries, their existence in com- 

 mercial abundance, as far as is now known, is confined 

 to American waters. The fresh-water mussel industries 

 are peculiarly American. 



(2) The mussels are important as one of the units that 

 compose our American wealth. They are the basis of a 

 significant fishery, and of industries of manufacture and 

 distribution that are worthy of preservation. 



(3) The fresh-water mussel is the paramount material 

 of button manufacture, the use of which has made pos- 

 sible the production of an article of attractive and serv- 

 iceable qualities, relatively low in price and used by 

 practically every person in the country. 



(4) The mussel is by nature self-perpetuative, and, if 

 reasonable care be exercised, danger of exhaustion need 

 not exist. Only by the gross neglect of the necessary 

 measures of protection and propagation will the mussels 

 become so depleted as to be rated no longer a valuable 

 resource. 



(5) Up to the present time, protection has been prac- 

 tically neglected, and in most of the streams where im- 

 portant shelling operations have been followed, depletion 

 has not only occurred, but the exhaustive operations are 

 being pushed to the last possible degree. 



(6) Shellers and manufacturers should be interested 

 in the perpetuation of a resource that offers them the 



