94 Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting 
feature of the Maryland statute, Congress passed an act authoriz- 
ing the desired co-operation of the two bureaus in question with 
the Maryland shellfish commission and appropriating $15,000 te 
cover the expenses of the government work in connection there- 
with. This state and federal legislation means a great deal to 
the oyster industry of Maryland and to the large number of 
people who are fortunate enough to come within the effective 
range of the Chesapeake oyster; and a very marked increase in 
the oyster crop of the state may be expected in a few years. 
Undoubtedly the most important fishery legislation consider- 
ed and enacted by the Congress in question was that pertaining 
to the fisheries of Alaska, which, being an unorganized territory, 
is entirely under the control of Congress. The new legislation 
is a recognition of new conditions, and is a response to a very 
general demand for adequate protection for the vast fishery in- 
terests of our arctic province, particularly the salmon. The new 
fishery code for Alaska was formulated after extended hearings 
before the House committee on territories, and is acceptable to 
those engaged in the fishing industry as well as to the govern- 
ment. The act, which became a law June 26, 1906, and is im- 
mediately effective, “designed to reenact and harmonize many 
provisions of existing laws relating to Alaskan fisheries; to en- 
large and extend the scope of restrictive features on fishing, and 
to include such further provisions for protection and regulation 
as are deemed essential to preserve and perpetuate the fisheries 
and to increase the natural supply by artificial propagation.” 
The leading features of the law are a tax on the products 
canned, salted, or otherwise prepared; the exemption from all 
taxation of those persons who operate private salmon hatcheries 
and liberate fry at the rate of 1,000 for every 10 cases of salmon 
canned; the prohibition of any trap, barricade, dam, or other 
fixed obstruction in any waters at any point where the distance 
from shore to shore is less than 500 feet wide, or within 500 
yards of any salmon stream less than 500 feet wide at its mouth; 
the prohibition of any kind of net fishing which obstructs more 
than one-third the width of any stream, creek, estuary or lagoon ; 
the prohibition of the laying of any seine or other net within 100 
yards of any other net, and of the setting of any trap or other 
fixed appliance within 600 yards laterally or 100 yards endwise 
