70 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



The lines of future library development are clear. As in the past, 

 it will be important to spend a certain percentage of the appropriation 

 for current books, especially in view of the fact that fisheries research 

 is now the object of increasing international interest and attention. A 

 set of " Biometrika, " which is the chief journal of statistical method, 

 would be an invaluable addition to our resources. However, the main 

 mode of expansion must be acquisition of desired papers that are 

 scattered in various scientific periodicals. Whenever possible, we will 

 order only the issues which contain the special investigations of interest, 

 so as to avoid purchase of large volumes in which most of the material 

 would be useless. 



Aside from addition of books, provision for permanent preservation 

 of the collection now shelved becomes more and more necessary. Three- 

 fourths of the material here is in the form of paper-covered pamphlets, 

 which are of course exposed to dust and other deteriorating influences. 

 Their adequate protection requires that they be bound as soon as 

 possible. 



As far as its immediate usefulness is concerned, the library's chief 

 need is for a systematic catalog. Enlargement of the staff and growth 

 of the library combine to make us acutely conscious of the waste of time 

 consequent upon trying to use unindexed material. We therefore con- 

 sider it essential to build up a catalog that will make available for 

 ready reference the perhaps unrealized resources of the books already 



at hand. 



CONCLUSION. 



In this report, three facts are preeminently worthy of consideration. 

 One is the necessity for retaining good men as guides for our student 

 assistants ; another is the need for giving the scientific work a more 

 stable position and a better relationship to the work of other agencies; 

 and the third is the great emphasis which our work is now throwing 

 upon the necessity for carefully fostering our statistical system. As far 

 as concerns the first two facts, the retention of good men and the per- 

 manence of the program are closely bound together. Good men do not 

 work for the money immediately in sight. They must feel themselves 

 engaged in work which has its place in the world, a place that is recog- 

 nized as worthy. 



Much of the fishery work which has been carried on in the United 

 States has been transitory and unstable in aim, and the fundamental 

 principles of fisheries conservation have received very little attention 

 because of the evanescent nature of each attempt. We have tried to 

 so formulate our work that it includes those things which are funda- 

 mentally necessary, and we are trusting that our devotion to a cause 

 will not be wasted by the heedlessness of the future. There is, however, 

 little ground at present for this faith in the persistence of the work, 

 and as a result it is hard to persuade anyone that earnest, unselfish work 

 will be worth while, or that the program will last long enough to solve 

 any of the basic problems of fishery research and conservation. 



In short, the organization of which the laboratory now forms a part 

 exists only in the minds of those who now hold office in and under the 

 Commission. With the passing of these incumbents there will vanish 

 all traces of the carefully thought out permanent program. None of the 

 objectives have been made obligatory, and no provision has been made 

 for seeing that our successors are well informed oi" vvell advised, Under 



