CUvi xiMviu ur UUMM1HSI0NER OF FISH AND FISHERIES 
greater use of fish as food, from the standpoints of hygiene and 
tic, agricultural, and even national economy. 
Our national dietary is one-sided. Our food contains relatively too 
much of fat, sugar, and starch, and too little of protein. This is a 
natural result of our agricultural conditions which have led to the pro- 
duction of large quantities of maize, which is relatively deficient in 
protein, and of excessively fat beef and pork. Our agricultural produc- 
tion is, in this sense, one-sided. 
Our soils are becoming depleted by culture. The evil results of this 
are already evident in the older and are becoming so even in some of 1 
the newer States of the Union. Of the ingredients of plant food which i 
are needed for the restoration of fertility, the costliest and scarcest is I 
nitrogen, which is the characteristic element of the protein compounds j 
of our food. 
A very large amount of the waste products which are left from the i 
consumption of food, instead of being returned to the soil for restoring 
its fertility and increasing its production, is carried oft in drainage I 
waters and through the sewers of large cities into the rivers and sea. j 
The nitrogenous products are thus especially exposed to loss. The 
nitrogen, however, is not lost necessarily in this way. It goes for the \ 
support of marine vegetation which forms the food of fish. It may thus j 
again be utilized as food for man. Fish has relatively less of fats and 
more of protein than meats and vegetable foods. By fish culture, then, • 
we are enabled to supply the very materials which are lacking in our 
dietaries and from the waste products may be saved the valuable fer- .< 
tilizing elements, including phosphorus and especially nitrogen. 
As population becomes denser, the capacity of the soil to supply food i) 
for man gradually nears its limit. Fish gather materials that would | 
otherwise be inaccessible and lost, and store them in the very forms j 
that are most deficient in the produce of the soil. Thus, by proper 1 
culture and use of fish, the rivers and sea are made to fulfill their office 1 
with the land in supplying nutriment for man. 
