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Conservation Reader 



U . \V. Fairbanks 



An Indian fish trap. 



time. Our government is now doing a great deal to save 

 the food fishes of the country, but some varieties are still 

 decreasing. 



The little herring is the most valuable of all the sea fish. 

 Enormous numbers are captured in nets, and still greater 

 numbers form the food of other fish. The herring has so 

 many enemies that it must increase rapidly in order to hold 

 its place in the sea. Nature has arranged that this fish 

 should produce twenty thousand or more eggs at each 

 spawning season. It is thought that if only two eggs out 

 of this great number hatch and grow up, the supply of her- 

 ring will be maintained. This estimate does not, however, 

 take into account the present terrible waste of herring in 



