144 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUIIE. [Pub. Doc. 



As a result of this policy, there have been lost to agricult- 

 ure hundreds of tons of plant food. Furthermore, the defeat 

 of the Lapham Bill will put thousands of dollars into the 

 pockets of the slaughterers and packers of the country, who 

 manufacture a material similar in composition to menhaden 

 scrap. The slaughtering business of the country is said to 

 be controlled l)y four concerns, known as the "Big Four." 

 Whether it is or not, it is safe to say that these four concerns 

 produce at least fifty thousand tons yearly of fertilizing 

 material, and will profit by the defeat of the Lapham Bill 

 l)yjust so much as the catch of fish is decreased on that 

 account. 



The slaughterers of the country could very well afford to 

 contribute to the maintenance of State rei^ulations that in- 

 terfere with the harvest of food products from the sea, for 

 such products come in competition with those which they 

 produce. 



If there had been the usual quantity of food fish, especially 

 mackerel and menhaden, taken from the sea this year, as it 

 is believed there would have been except for the prohibitory 

 legislation, it might have had a material influence upon the 

 price of meat products ; and it certainly would have had a 

 very great influence upon the price of fish scrap to the 

 tobacco-grower in the Connecticut valley and in Virginia, 

 who this year will have to pay from five to seven dollars 

 a ton more for it than he did in 1891. 



The great catch of menhaden from 1875 to 1885 was one 

 of the chief factors that brought down the price of com- 

 mercial manures and guano from sixty and seventy dollars 

 a ton to forty and forty-five dollars a ton ; and it will have 

 just as potent an influence in the future as it has had in the 

 past. 



The food-fish industry sliould be protected first ; and if 

 food fish can be taken in larger quantities by improved 

 methods, as is the case in Great Britain and France, with- 

 out exhausting the supply, then it becomes an economic 

 question of so much importance that both the State and the 

 nation should seek to protect and encourage such methods 

 in this country. Further, if it can be shown that the men- 

 haden species can be taken in a wholesale way without inter- 



