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Department of Agriculture, 0 show that, when eaten as a part of 
a mixed ration, the four fishes, mackerel, butterfish, grayfish (canned), j 
and salmon (canned) are digested with equal completeness. These 
fishes were the subject of 18 experiments on digestibility in 6 men; 
92.5 per cent of the protein and 92.6 per cent of the fat was digested. 
From numerous other investigators we have ample evidence that 
fish meat is as easily digested as are, other meats, as wholesome, 
and quite as able to supply the flesh-building proteins of the body. 
In substituting fish for other kinds of meat, attention should, of 
course, be paid to proper methods of cooking to make the fish as [ 
agreeable as possible. Some fish owe their present disrepute largely 
to the fact that they were seldom or never properly cooked—as, 
for example, the carp, which is both abundant and, when properly 
cooked, palatable. Information of the cooking of some of these 
fishes has been published by the Bureau of Fisheries; other informa¬ 
tion on this subject may be obtained from the Bureau of Home 
Economics, Department of Agriculture, and from the domestic 
science departments of State universities and agricultural colleges. 
There are other sound reasons for looking to the fisheries for 
increased production of nitrogenous food in this time of national 
emergency. Nearly all land animals which furnish meat depend 
upon agricultural products for their food. A great part of the 
vegetation now devoured by cattle might be used for human con¬ 
sumption; cattle and poultry, for the most part, merely convert one 
available form of food into another. On the other hand, fishes 
consume directly or indirectly animal and vegetable forms which 
in their natural state are unavailable and useless as food for man, 
such as the aquatic plants which derive their nutrients and mineral 
fertilizers from the waters. The materials thus assembled are con¬ 
verted directly or indirectly by the fishes into food available for 
mankind. It is therefore obvious that the adoption of a fish diet by 
a larger number of people will shift a part of the burden from lancl 
vegetation to aquatic vegetation. And this is the more to be desired 
since land animals have to consume proportionately a greater amount 
of food than fishes. Land animals, which are warm blooded, expend 
a large part of their nutrition in maintaining a constant temperature 
above that of their surroundings, with consequent radiation of large 
quantities of heat, whereas fishes, which are cold-blooded and actually 
receive heat from their surroundings, use all their food in the necessary 
activities and body growth. 
One should not expect to buy at a low price a fish that is caught 
only at distant places. The burbot should not be looked for in the 
markets in Alabama, nor the tilefish on the Pacific coast. The 
sablefish, cheap on the Pacific, may be expensive in the Atlantic 
States. Canned, salted, and dried fish, however, may be had any¬ 
where at nearly uniform prices. With alertness and some study of 
the market, one should be able to provide oneself with enough*fish 
to supply all demand for meats and at prices far from prohibitive. 
In summary, the fisheries of the United States offer large possi¬ 
bilities for increased food production if people can be induced to eat 
more fish, especially the kinds that have hitherto not been on the 
market. 
a By Dr. A. D. Holmes, from a forthcoming paper from the Bureau of Home Economics, Department 
of Agriculture. 
WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1917 
