24 AMERICAN FISHEKIKS SOCIETY. 



of Fisheries should make himself, as far as possible, thoroughly 

 familiar with the details of the fisheries of his own State. I say 

 the fisheries, I mean more especially the commercial fisheries — 

 that he should give special attention to the kinds of apparatus 

 that are being introduced into the waters, and to the effect of 

 each particular kind of apparatus upon the abundance of fish. It 

 is only by this means that he will be enabled to tell what the result 

 of his labors in stocking the w^aters is proving to be ; and, fur- 

 ther,it is only by this means that he will be enabled to stand be- 

 tween the man who condemns all fishing for profit and the man 

 who wants no restrictions placed upon the fisheries. We have 

 at the present time two contending parties — on the one hand, 

 the angler, who wants fishing only for sport, and wishes to pro- 

 hibit the use of every form of implement for catching fish that 

 will interfere with the enjoyment of his summer vacation ; and 

 on the other hand, a large class of men who derive their entire sup- 

 port from the catching of fish for market. Each class comes with 

 its complaints to the legislative bodies of the country, and the one 

 that makes the best impression upon the legislature is very apt 

 to carrv the day. We are thus coming to have a series of laws 

 enacted, some of which are very unwise and ought never to ap- 

 pear upon the statute books. 



It is only recently that the U. S. Fish Commission has under- 

 taken to familiarize itself with the details of the fisheries. Through 

 an arrangement with the Census Office in 1H79, Professor Baird, 

 as you all know, was allowed an opportunity of carrying out an 

 elaborate scheme for the investigation of the commercial fish- 

 eries. The work was placed under the direction of Prof. Goode, 

 and the results of that work are beginning to appear. Owing to 

 the exhaustion of the appropriation of the Census Office, they 

 were able to print only a small portion of the material that was 

 given them, but all of the manuscripts were retained by them 

 until recently, when they were returned to the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission. Professor Goode and his associates has given much 

 time to the preparation of tiiese reports, the first two volumes 

 of which have already appeared, and a large amount of addition;;! 

 material is now in type and will soon be ready for distribution. 

 At least half a dozen more volumes siniiliar in size to those al- 



