FISHERY RESOURCES OF THE PHILIPPINES, I. 521 



a board. This operation is not necessarily done at any particular season, 

 but whenever the condition demands it. The Oedogonium is some- 

 times purchased and j)laced in an exhausted pond. A small ianca 

 load is worth one peso. 



A so-called "medicine" for the young fish (apparently used only in 

 small ponds where the water is contaminated by close proximity to 

 houses) is the Lemna minor Linn., the floating roots of which are 

 greedily devoured. 



When the fr}' are to be jslanted in the pond, the water is again allowed 

 to drain off and the alga is partially killed by the hot sun. This, it 

 is claimed, renders the Oedogonium soft and fragile for the tiny mouths. 

 Eventually, the young baiigos are removed to the great pond where their 

 quantity is largely governed by the supply of the food alga. 



The average value of the ponds about Manila Bay is probably 40 

 centavos per square meter, giving a total of more than 6,000,000 pesos for 

 the pond value alone, which I am convinced is a conservative estimate. 

 I chose one pond which measured 140 by 170 meters as an average of 

 the twenty or more shown on a surveyor's map compiled from data 

 obtained from tlie owners of the properties. 



METHODS OF FISHING.^ 



It has been my privilege to make personal observations of the methods 

 employed in the fisheries of various pai-ts of the world, in the United 

 States, Alaska, New Zealand, Australia, Honolulu, and numerous Pacific 

 Islands, also to some extent in Japan. Some time ago at the instance 

 of the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Dean C. Worcester and before I 

 assumed my piosition in the Bureau of Science, I made a more detailed 

 examination of the methods employed in the fisheries of the eastern 

 United States in order to secure the latest information regarding 

 the various kinds of nets and apparatus that could with profit be used 

 to develop tlie commercial fisheries of the Philippine Islands. 



It may not be out of place, therefore, to give brief descriptions of 

 such apparatus as seems to me to be of especial value and short sug- 

 gestions as to its use. 



SEINES. 



In the Atlantic fisheries a great man)- more fish are caught with the 

 various kinds of seines than in any other way. In 1904, the New York 

 fisheries alone captured by thjs method 214,099,735 pounds of fish, with 

 a value of 836,.597 dollars. United States currency. 



' A full description as to detailed method of construction, size of twine, niesli, 

 hanging of net and methods of using can be obtained by applying to the United 

 States Division of Fisheries. 



