84 
THE BOOK OF FISHES 
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ment of safeguards and restorative 
measures. Our fishing will doubtless 
last longer than our shooting. 
Private fish culture would be 
of great service in maintaining and 
increasing our supply of fish food. 
While it has been practiced for 
centuries in some European coun¬ 
tries, it has but little more than 
commenced in America. 
The possessors of strongly flowing 
springs, brooks, and small lakes should 
be awakened to the value of their 
home resources for water farming. 
Approved methods for the construc¬ 
tion and management of fish ponds 
have been worked out at public fish- 
cultural stations and instructive pub¬ 
lic documents on the subject can be 
had for the asking. 
Fish-culturists assert that an acre 
of water can be made to yield more 
food than an acre of land and the 
truth of the assertion has been dem¬ 
onstrated. 
MUSSELS DEPENDENT UPON 
FISH HOSTS 
An interesting work in aquicul- 
ture is now being carried on in the 
Mississippi Valley under the direction 
of the Bureau of Fisheries. It is 
based upon the fact that the pro¬ 
pagation of the Mussel is dependent 
upon the presence of fishes to which 
the young, free-swimming Mussels 
may attach themselves as parasites 
until they are old enough to form 
shells and begin an independent 
existence. 
The large, heavy-shelled Mussels of 
this region have been gathered in such 
numbers for the manufacture of pearl 
buttons, and also for the valuable 
pearls they sometimes contain, that 
the supply is being exhausted and 
the important industry dependent 
upon the Mussel is in danger. 
The Mussel industry annuallyyields 
6 o,ooo tons of shells which are worth 
more than ^i,000,000. We are all 
wearing pearl buttons from this 
source, which will be missed if the 
great river becomes too foul for the 
growth of Mussels. 
Young Mussels attach chiefly to 
the gills of fishes, and in some species 
