UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



795 



for systematic investigation of the subject was 

 arranged and partially undertaken. This work 

 was carried on for two seasons, receiving some 

 financial aid from the Department of State. 

 In 1879 an arrangement was made with the 

 Superintendent of the Tenth Census, who 

 agreed to bear a part of the expense of carry- 

 ing out the scheme in full. Thirty trained ex- 

 perts were for several months engaged in the 



gathering of material for a statistical report on 

 the history and present state of the fisheries 

 of the United States. This has since been fin- 

 ished, and is now being published. Many of 

 the statistical results, being the first which have 

 ever been prepared as the outcome of an ex- 

 amination of the fishery centers by experienced 

 statisticians, are shown in the accompanying 

 table. 



STATISTICS OF THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1880. 

 Prepared for the Tenth Census, under the direction of G. Brown Qoode. 



The third and last department of the work 

 is that of propagation. The various States have 

 numerous laws for the protection of fish and 

 fishermen, generally worse than useless, though 

 there are many definitions of close-time, which 

 appear to be beneficial. To enforce these laws 

 would, however, render necessary a large 

 number of fish-wardens. The policy of the 

 United States Commissioner has been, to carry 

 out the idea that it is better to expend a small 

 amount of public money in making fish so 

 plenty that they can be caught without restric- 

 tion, to serve as cheap food for the people at 

 large, rather than to employ a much larger 

 amount in preventing the people from catching 

 the few that still remain after generations of 

 improvidence. 



The propagation-work has increased in im- 

 portance from year to year, as may be seen by 

 the constant increase in the amount of the an- 

 nual appropriation. A review of the results 

 of the labors of the commission, in increasing 



the food-supply of the country, may be found 

 in the annual reports ; the rude appliances of 

 fish-culture in use ten years ago have given 

 way to scientifically devised apparatus, by 

 which millions of eggs are hatched where 

 thousands were, and the demonstration of the 

 possibility of stocking rivers and lakes to any 

 desired extent has been greatly strengthened. 



This work, from 1871 to 1877, was most effi- 

 ciently directed by James W. Milner, whose 

 untimely death was caused by his over-stren- 

 uous labors in fish-culture. It is now under 

 the immediate direction of Maj. T. B. Fergu- 

 son, Assistant Commissioner, by whom much 

 of the machinery for fish-culture on a gigantic 

 scale, by the aid of steam; was devised, and 

 Col. Marshall McDonald, Chief of the Division 

 of Propagation. The work of the commis- 

 sion in fish-culture has been that of stimulation 

 and co-operation, which has been extended to 

 the State Fish Commissions and to fish-cultur- 

 ists in every part of the world. 



