222 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



herd of the Pribilof Islands and the sponge fisheries off the coast 

 of Florida. 20 In a great many ways the Bureau of Fisheries 

 is a marine department of agriculture. It administers the 

 regulatory laws of Congress, conducts scientific investigations 

 of the various fish, and keeps an eye on the fish market. Indeed, 

 one part of the work of the Bureau of Fisheries is to further 

 good practices of what is called aquiculture. Aquiculture is 

 fish farming, just as agriculture is the growing of plants. As the 

 various valuable species of fish are depleted, aquiculture be' 

 comes increasingly important. 



THE VALUABLE FUR BEARERS 



The business of hunting fur-bearing animals such as the 

 muskrat and beaver, has, like most other businesses, become a 

 highly systematized process. True, a great many pelts are still 

 sold by farmers who do a little trapping in their spare time, 

 but today most pelts come from farms where animals are espe' 

 daily grown for their coats. 



A generation or so ago California was a great hunting 

 ground for fur trappers. Under the snow crest of Mount 

 Shasta were huge forests where hardly anyone but trappers and 

 a few prospectors ever cared to go. Today Mount Shasta's 

 flanks have been cut bare of their evergreen forests. In the 

 place of the Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine, and incense cedar, 

 there are gray patches of dry volcanic soil showing through the 

 cover of creosote brush, rabbit sage, and other bushes. And at 

 its foot is a large area enclosed by a high fence. On the fence 

 is a sign announcing that here is a silver fox farm. The farm has 

 failed, too, now, but it would have been hard to tell any 

 trapper of seventy-five years ago that there would be farms to 

 raise fur on the sides of that great peak. 



If you drive out to the east from New Orleans, you pass 

 through low green flats by the side of the Gulf of Mexico. To 



20 Loc. cit. 



