No. 4.] THE HARVEST OF THE SEA. 147 



The Chairmax, We have had a very interesting paper, 

 and it has proved to us that the story is not only interesting, 

 but may sometimes be very important. We have with us a 

 gentleman who is very familiar with the su]))ect, Capt. 

 Church of Tiverton. We should be glad to hear from him. 



Capt. Daniel T. Church (of Tiverton, R. I,). I did 

 not come here with any intention of making a speech ; I 

 came to hear what my friend had to say. He has very 

 thoroughly covered the ground. I am very glad that he has 

 opened the campaign of education, for as toilers of the sea, 

 we know from the illustrations that he has given, that the 

 harvest gathered from the sea is a very large and valuable 

 one, especially in the form of fertilizers. We have had 

 a practical illustration of its value in the last year or two. 

 The price of ammonia within the last A^ear has advanced from 

 $1.75 per unit to $2.00, $2.20 and $2.30. That is the differ- 

 ence it makes to the farmer ; and one of the main reasons 

 for that advance has been the shortage in the catch of men- 

 haden. The main reason for the shortase has been the inter- 

 ference of Massachusetts, Maine and New York with our 

 fisheries. Practically from the foundation of our govern- 

 ment up to within four, five or six years there has been 

 almost absolute free fishing in this country. Laws have 

 been introduced into the Congress of the United States to 

 interfere with it, Init they have been always headed off. 

 There have been laws passed by the States, but practically 

 those laws have never, until recently, been enforced. Within 

 the last three or four years laws have been enacted in some 

 of the States which have attached certain conditions to fish- 

 ing, which, if carried out, will destroy the fisheries. 



Speaking in a general way, our business is being 

 destroyed, and destroyed by men who do not understand the 

 merits of the case. I am convinced that if the people who 

 make these laws understood the merits of the case exactly 

 as they are, they would be as much for the fisheries as we 

 are ourselves. The idea that man is an enemy to fish, or 

 that any means which he can use to catch them has any per- 

 ceptible influence on their number, is a mistaken idea. All 

 history goes to prove it. Mr. Bowker has gone away back 

 to the time before Christ, and all history proves, as I say, 



