THE FISHERY CENSUS OF 1908 



V>\ Charles H. Stevenson, 



DETROIT, MICHIGAN. 



The value of statistical information in regard to (he com- 

 mercial fisheries has long hecn recogni/.ed. As earl)- as the 

 census of 1840, the products of the tisheries formed a suhject 

 of in(juii\-; and they recei\ed more or less attention in the 

 censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1890. 



As the industries of the countr}- dexeloped, the census 

 work' hecame so extensi\e and complicated that, owing to 

 the temporar)' character of the organization, it was found 

 impracticable to gi\e necessary attention to the many sub- 

 jects and to get out the reports in time to have great practical 

 \alue. Consequently in arranging for the census of UHIO, 

 Congress limited the subjects canvassed, the results to be 

 published within a reasonable time. Among the subjects 

 thus omitted was the fisheries. 



In the meantime, to suppK' the well-recognized need for 

 information, the United States Msh Commission had organ- 

 ized a small statistical force, which made a fishery census of 

 a portion of the country each year, coxering the entire coun- 

 trv in about fi\e or six years. The work of that office affords 

 the most satisfactory figures for the fisheries of the countiy 

 from its organization in 1888 up to 1^H13. 



Idle estaljlisliment of the permanent Census l')ureau at 

 \A'ashington in 1902 resulted in a somewhat radical de])arlnre 

 in goxernment statistical work. Placing tlie liureau upon a 

 stable basis, e(|uip])ed for practically continuous work and 

 organized upon a scale sufficiently broad to ])eimit the 

 eft"ective handling of any statistical in(|uir}', seems to indicate 

 that purely statistical work of ever}- descrii)ti( >n will l)e more 

 and more concentrated in this office, which w ill thus Ijecome, 



