May 13, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



449 



engagements arising at the last moment. A 

 congratulatory letter from Hon. William C. 

 Eediield, formerly Secretary of Commerce, 

 was read by Mr. E. L. Barney, director of the 

 station. 



This session concluded witli an address by 

 Hon. Harry E. Hull, M.C., under the title 

 of " The Significance of the Station to In- 

 dustries." He discussed the history of the 

 pearl mussel industry, pointed to the service 

 of science in directing measures of conserva- 

 tion and emphasized the national significance 

 of the work of the station. 



As the exercises of the morning stressed 

 the industrial relations of the station, so those 

 of the afternoon gave special emphasis to the 

 scientific phases of its activities. The primary 

 address of the afternoon session was by Presi- 

 dent Edward A. Birge, of the University of 

 Wisconsin, and was entitled " Aquiculture and 

 Science." President Birge congratulated the 

 bureau on the completion of so admirable a 

 building, which he welcomed " not merely for 

 what it is, but even more on account of the 

 promise' for the future which is made by its 

 establishment." He had found, he said, that 

 the term " aquiculture " was regarded by some 

 as a peculiarly technical or " high-brow " word 

 though its twin word " agriculture " was 

 looked upon by no one as in any way extra- 

 ordinary. He compared and contrasted the 

 well-develoi)ed science of agriculture (cultiva- 

 tion of plants and animals upon land) with 

 the unfamiliar and largely undeveloped sci- 

 ence of aquiculture (cultivation of plants and 

 animals in water). The following quotations 

 from his address are significant.'^ 



Now the lake is an. organism in the same sense 

 that the soil is one. The fish or the clam is not a 

 thing which grows for itself — -ajid for us — alone in 

 a certain environment. It is an integral part of a 

 complex life, a life regulated by chemical sub- 

 stances set free by its manifold operations. These 

 substances stimula/te one kind of growth or activ- 

 ity and check another one; and the utilizable crop 

 of fish or of clam shells comes as only one expres- 



^ The quotations in this paper are by permission 

 of the several speakers. 



sion of this complex life, as a sort of by-product of 

 all this intricate activity. 



So much as this we know, and we know also that 

 all assured progress in aquiculture depends on our 

 knowledge of this complex life. We must see the 

 problems of fisheries in terms of this life of 

 the waters, just as we see the problem of 

 any specific activity or product of the body 

 in terms of the whole life of which it is an 

 integral part. But we know next to nothing about 

 this life of the waters. We have countless papers 

 on isolated aspects or bits of aquatic life. But 

 there is no knowledge and hardly an attempt to 

 secure the knowledge of the life as a whole — as a 

 "going concern," if I may change my figure. 

 Still less is there any body of knowledge which 

 enables us to place the production of fish — that 

 essential source of food for us — in its proper place 

 in the operation of that "going concern." 



.'. . We must not be content with "conserv- 

 ing" our fisheries, though we admit with shame 

 that we are not effecting even this beginning of 

 our task. We too must aim to increase the product 

 of the waters and we can do this only as aquicul- 

 ture rests on a broad and firm foundation of or- 

 ganized knowledge — ^of science. 



We welcome, therefore, the Fairport Biological 

 Laboratory not merely as a notable addition to 

 the Scieatifio resources of the country, but even 

 more as embodying the promise of a new and ad- 

 vanced policy in dealing with the problems of 

 aquiculture. I can express no higher wish for the 

 laboratory and for the great interests served by 

 it than that it may not only embody the promise 

 but express the potency of that policy. 



Professor Frank R. Lillie, representing the 

 University of Chicago and the Marine Bio- 

 logical Laboratory of Woods Hole, Mass., 

 having chosen for his tlieme " The Spirit of 

 Cooperation in the Bureau of Fisheries " said 

 in part: 



The cooperation that you here propose with the 

 industries on the one hand and with the universi- 

 ties through their biologists on the other is a fine 

 program which should be to the advantage of both 

 parties. The relations which both will enter into 

 with the government through this Bureau are 

 among those close personal relations with our too 

 impersonal government which contribute to the 

 feeling that we are one people with one set of 

 interests and a mutual loyalty. 



After recalling the spirit of the founder of 



