556 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



quantity of nitrogenous material that 

 should go back on the land. In the older 

 countries Germany, for instance this 

 problem has been handled much more 

 intelligently. In Germany they turn the 

 sewage back on the land and lease the 

 land, charging about thirty dollars an 

 acre to the farmers for it. Should we 

 adopt some similar method, we would 

 be checking a loss on the one hand and 

 at the same time converting waste ma- 

 terial into a profit. The loudest de- 

 mands of our agricultural population is 

 for good fertilizer procurable at a rea- 

 sonable price, and yet we have been 

 sacrificing the very best fertilizer 

 through the stupidity which has charac- 

 terized our handling of this one phase 

 of a most important municipal problem. 



THE ECONOMIC EFFECT 



What is the economic effect of our 

 shortsighted, wasteful and ertravagant 

 policy? 



Market fish are decreasing in quan- 

 tity and quality in an inverse ratio to 

 the increase of our population, and their 

 prices steadily increasing. The fish in- 

 dustry in the majority of the coast 

 States is being forced to headlong de- 

 struction.* In but a few years, if pres- 

 ent conditions continue, the price of 

 many of our market fish will be beyond 

 the reach of that class of people on 



whose table they are now most fre- 

 quently seen. 



The accompanying schedule shows 

 the increase or decline in the catch, the 

 increase or decline in the wholesale 

 price, and the approximate increase or 

 decline in the retail price covering the 

 period between 1880 and 1908, of our 

 most popular market fish : 



Some idea may be gained of the ag- 

 gregate cost to the American people of 

 our improvident policy toward this val- 

 uable national asset when one pauses to 

 reflect that the total Catholic population 

 of the United States is in the neighbor- 

 hood of twenty million, and that the 

 practice of the great majority of these 

 people in confining their meat diet on 

 Friday to fish has caused marine food 

 to become the favorite dish on that day 

 of a large Protestant population. What 

 this increase in the price of fish means 

 to these millions of consumers is merely 

 a matter of mathematical calculation. 

 If this cost is estimated, the figures in 

 dollars and cents will prove such as will 

 be apt to startle even the most lethargic. 



And let us not overlook that the 

 penalty we are now paying is but in- 

 significant in comparison with that 

 which will confront us in the future 

 unless some radical change is inaugu- 

 rated. 



+ Indicate; increase. 

 Indicates decrease. 



* While writing this article I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. Joseph Crawford, of the 

 Newark Star, Newark, N. J., who says : 



"Thousands of tons of fish have been destroyed along our coast this summer because they 

 were too small for market and great quantities of ling and whiting have been destroyed to 

 keep them out of the market. The fish that hold best in cold storage, that is, blue fish and 

 weakfish, are so scarce the net men are even becoming worried." 



