132 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Puli. Doc. 



ods revived. However, we have to-day the steamboat with its 

 purse-seines, and also the large fishing-vessel with its beam- 

 trawl, — a recent importation from Europe, the first vessel 

 of the kind having been built the past year at Essex in this 

 State. By these new and improved methods both food and 

 fertilizer fish can be taken from the sea in much larger quan- 

 tities and much more cheaply than ever before ; and they will 

 come into general use if they are encouraged, rather than 

 hampered by unwise legislation. 



The DESTRucTioisr of Spawn. 



As to the destruction of the spawn of food fish by the 

 newer methods of fishing, which is so much feared. Professor 

 Huxley of England, who served for three years on the Fish 

 Commission, gives this testimony : — 



"That the supposed spawn brought up by the trawls turned out 

 to be nothing hut gelatiyious inhabitants of the sea, which had just 

 as much to do with fisli as cocks and hens had to do with Jumbo. 

 Such fish as haddock and cod do not lay their eggs at the sea bot- 

 tom, but they float at the top . . . [and vivify there.] . . . Since 

 1866 tliere has been abundant evidence to prove that, while trawl- 

 ers have gone on steadily increasing, there has been no diminu- 

 tion in the number of cod, haddock and whiting caught." * 



Mr. Huxley further states, that, "were trawl fishing 

 stopped, it would no longer be a case of high prices, but 

 that ninety-nine out of a hundred in England would hardly 

 be able to afford fish at all, herrings and a few other fish 

 caught in the old way excepted." * 



Injudicious Legislation. 



On Dec. 0, 1885, a bill was introduced into the United 

 States Senate, the first and second sections of which read as 

 follows : — 



"It shall not be lawful for any person or persons, by day or 

 night, to put, place, haul, draw or in any manner use any purse- 

 net, pound, fyke, weir or other appliance for the capture of mcn- 



* " Fisheries of the World," by F. Whymper, London. 



