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to its fullest extent by an agricultural people is simply 
a question of time. Thus will it ultimately happen that 
from the earth’s lesser waters as ‘well as from its all 
encompassing oceans, bordered everywhere by an 
industrious and enlightened population, will be drawn 
the deficiency of a burdened soil. That vast reservoir 
of marine life whose mere waste immeasurably exceeds 
the need of mankind can, under its wise and provident 
ministration, renew its treasures with unfailing 
abundance and thus toa remoter period may be deferred 
the apparition of gaunt famine stalking through a 
decaying world. Tousthe ocean is what the wide 
spreading prairie was to the Indian hunter, a free field 
for the exercise of indiscriminate slaughter, destruction 
and waste, but henceforward it is to be regarded as the 
common possession of mankind whereof the advantage 
of the individual is to be subordinate to that of the race. 
The code that will administer, conserve and apportion 
its benefits may be like that governing mining and 
irrigating industries—the growth of time—but the world 
will yet co-operate ina harmonious development and 
distribution of its common resources. The science of 
water farming will absorb a material share of its effort 
and talent, and make of the ocean a field for the main- 
tenance, development and improvement of that which 
is of value and the elimination of that which is harmful. 
Our fisheries may not yield upon the invested capital a 
greater return than that of the farming interest, and the 
marine food producer contribute no more to the common 
alimentary stock than the average agriculturist. The 
vessels and apparatus employed are costly, and their 
destruction or impairment, and the loss, entire or partial, 
of the crew is an abiding contingency. In this respect 
we may be likened to our primitive ancestors, who 
ventured into the remote wilderness upon precarious 
Il. The well doing of the humble ryot moreover enabling him to eat two meals a 
day where formerly he ate but one. 
