The Conservation of Fishery Resources

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NEARLY forty Years before conservation had become a household word in America, one branch of the federal government had entered on a course of action having for its direct object the maintenance of the supply of useful water creatures. That work has continued uninterruptedly and with annual augmentation to the present time; and in it the Federal Government as represented by the Bureau of Fisheries has co-operated for many years with the fishery departments of various States. Among all of our natural resources there are none that have been more flagrantly abused, none that are more in need of intelligent attention at the hands of conservators, and none that will respond more readily to decent treatment than the fishes and other inhabitants of our coastal and interior waters. Success of Fish Culture and Acclimatization. The acclimatization of fishes in all parts of the country has been a potent supplement of fish culture proper and a valuable factor in conservation by relieving the strain on native fishes and by making exhausted waters again yield their quota of human food. Among the noteworthy results of the introduction of fishes into a new environment are the cases of the shad and striped bass. These excellent food fishes are not native to the Pacific Coast but were planted there by the government more than a quarter of a century ago. The slender colonies took root, thrived, multiplied, and spread to such an extent that both of these species are now reckoned among the commonest food fishes of the western seaboard, the shad having a coastwise range of four thousand miles and the striped bass being more abundant in California than in any Eastern State. The entire cost of the introduction of these fishes into the Pacific States did not exceed $5,000. The market value of the catch to the fisherman to the end of the year 1910 exceeded $1,750,000. With the present trend of the shad and striped bass fisheries on the Atlantic Coast, it is not beyond the range of probability that the re-establishment of these fishes in eastern streams may depend on fry brought from the-West. Legislation and Regulation. A cwordinale if not a coe'ual factor in Jhlhcry eonservation is legislation. For the protection of fish in interstate waters, weE considered restrictive legislation, supported by local sentiment, may accomplish much; for interstate and boundary waters, or for fishes that migrate from one jurisdiction to another, legislation !has often, perhaps usually, failed. The failures have been serious in some regions and in the case of some species, and afford tbe strongest possible argument for federal control and also regulation. An event which gave promise of resulting in one of the great conservation measures of this generation was tho assumption by the federal government of jurisdiction over the fisheries of tho waters contigu01S to the United Statis and Canada from Passama-quoddy Bay to Fuca Strait, foNowed by the conclusion of a treaty between the United States and Great Britain under which joint fishery regulations were to be drawn up, ratified, and enforced by the two countries. This assumption by our government of jurisdiction that had formerly been exercised by the States was undertaken reluctantly and only after protracted evidence of the inability of the States to enact and enforce legislation that was harmonious and adequate. It is therefore very unfortunate for the welfare of these extensive fisheries that the recommend,t-tions of the special commission appointed under the treaty have not been put into effect. Whitefish of the Great Lakes. The case of the whitellsh of the Great Lakes is seriolls, and radical action is necessary to arrest a decline that has been in progress for many years, The regulations and restorative measures provided for the treaty would undoubtedly prave a boon to the whitefish fishery and would soon convert a dwindling industry into a Jiollrishing one. The fact that the supply of whitefish has not been maintained even at the reduced point reached in 1880 or 1890 has resulted in the direct loss of many million dollars to the fishermen and the indirect loss of many hundred thousand dollars to Federal and State Governments because of their abortive efforts to restore by artificial propagation and the enforcement of restrictive legislation. There is no fish that has been hatched artificiaHy in larger numbers than the . whitefish, while enough legislation has : been addressed to it to sink a battleship.The catch has declined eighty per cent in twenty years, showing how powerful are the anti-conservation forces in ; operation. There is absolutely not a single valid ' reason why the abundance of this great food fish should not have remained practically unimpaired for untold genera-; tions and at the same time vast quantities have been caught for market. The i average number of eggs laid by a white-; fsh is 25,000. All that nature required, ' all that the unimpaired perpetuation ot the fishery demanded, and the least that . common sense could have granted was that 'a single pair of fish from the 25,000 eggs should have been permitted to reach maturity and spawn. Oysters and Sponges. After a vrocarious existence of many years, tho oyster has gradually eome under the influence of cuI-tivation, and along much the greater Iart of our extended coast its conservation is an assured fact and need never occasion any further concern. The finan-(Continued on page 154.) (Continued from vaue 149.) been built, so that now, on many streams, no water escapes whatever, and the lower roaches of the river bed have been grown over with trees and vegetation. Tlt0 reclamation work in this district is scattered over the States of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and southern Wyoming. In the valleys the rainfall varies from 6 to 16 inches; in the mountains above the project, it reaches as high as 30 and 40 inches. The value of the irrigated lands ranges from $75 to $100 per acre in the northerI y projects, to $100 to $1,000 in the southern projects, much of this land having sold for $3 to $10 per acre before the projects were inaugurated. UXCOMPAHGRE PROJECT, COLORADo.-In the Uncompahgre Valley is a body of fine land of 150,000 acres, but the run-off of the Uneompahgre River is limited, and after settlement a succession of crop failures followed. It was found that the run-off of the Gunnison River in the adjoining valley was very large; hence arose the suggestion to tunnel the intervening mountain, and divert the Gunnison River into the Uncompahgre Valley. An attempt was made to do this, bnt the cost was too great. The Reclamation Service took hold of the ,ork, and completed the tunnel, SIX mIles Il length, whIch has been I. I use now durl. llg tho past two seasons. One hundred an(l forty thousand acres :n the Uncompahbre Valley have now an assured water Slpply, which is to be augmented by bUl. ldllg a reservoir on Taylor RiveT, a tributary of the Gunnison. GRAND VALLEY PROJECT, COLORA])O.-This project in :1esa County, western Colorado, is designed to irrigate the higher Mesa lands, which include th.) 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Aircraft An Encyclopedia of Aeronautical Development Published in Monthly Installments Read by everybody interested in the subjec S $1. 50 per year 1.00 eight months .50 four months . 15 per cory The Lawson Pub'g Co. 37-39 East 28th Street, New Yo r k City The Use and Waste of Our Coal Supply (Continued from page no 139.) These problems are intricate, and their satisfactory solution doubtless remote, but they are of such importance as to be worthy of the best efforts of the Government and of its private institutions and individual citizens. In engineering and architecture we hide our ignorance as to the strength and other properties of structural materials behind the well·sounding phraSe, “factors of safety. “ In these important and intricate fuel problems we hide our ignorance and rest our laurels concerning these losses under the equally comforting expression, “transformation of energy.” What Ameriean industry needs is technical information, accurate fundamental data, such as comes from varied, extended, continuous, well directed, and scientific research. Each recent year has witnessed some advance in the line of greater fuel eff-ciency; and while eacn advance has been small, the aggregate has during the past decade raised the percentage of heat units converted into mechanical work from five or six to nine or ten, and slightly more in a few cases. The gas producer and gas engine, the steam turbine, and the improved reciprocating engine, represent steps in this advance. So does also· the development and introduction of the several types of automatic stokers; these latter contributing to efficiency and at the same time lessening the smoke nuisance from modern power plants. These automatic stokers and special grates have further contributed to the conservation of resources by making possible the more efficient burning of fine or slack coal, which formerly was relegated to culm piles as waste, and as such to be burned in the open air. Briquetting is making another contribution along the same line. Another step in the direction of practical eonservation. cleanliness, and hygiene-and one that should be pushed more rapidly-is the location of the great power plants at the mines, and the burning there, e.her in gas producers or specially constructed furnaces, of the low grades of coal now thrown away because they will not bear transportation; and the electric transmission of the power so developed to adjacent cities, towns and isolated plants. I look forward to a time-and it cannot, I believe, be far distant-when ample supplies of electricity so gene.ated and brought into our factories and our homes will not only give us light and power, but will also cook our food and warm our houses. Two other marked advances in the economic utilization of coal deserve mention because of both their extent and their far-reaching importance; one is the large beginning in the manufacture of by.Jrodnct coke for the latest steel plants of the United States Steel Corporation, including the saving of such valuable byproducts as creosote for the preservation of timber, and sulphate of ammonia, so largely used in the fertilizing of crops. The other is the use in large gas engines of the blast furnace gases that formerly were entirely, and in many places are stiI! largely wasted. The losses in these two fields, added to the shameful waste of natural gases, still aggregate year;y from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000; but improvements are under way in all these lines. How These Mining Losses May Be Reduced. No one questions the fact that these losses are real; nor are there any serious differences of opinion as to the proposi-tion that these losses- should be avoided. Just how this best can be done is another matter, and one about which a difference of opinion may naturally arise. . The situation is full of interest; full of problems for the statesman, the engineer and tne economist, the consumer and the producer. It involves the very essence, the purpose and the practicability of the movement for the conservatIOn of resources. The case may be stated as follows: We have but the one supply of coal, and this supply is essential to both the future and the present welfare of the nation. At the present increasing rate of use and waste of this supply, it will be used and destroyed while the nation is yet in its youth. By mining and using this coal more efficiently, the life of the supply may be extended indefinitely, and both the present and future welfare of the nation time properly safeguarded. The coal operator does not practise wasteful methods by preference. He is, ho\'-ever, operating under a system that encourages and even renders inevitahle these wasteful practices; and for which system the public itself is largely respO!-sible. A Federal statute makes . impossible for the coal producers 1.0 eo-operate or combine with a view to fixing a common or non-competitive price for coal at the mine. The demand for coal during the winter season of each year being much in excess of that during the warmer months, and the entire lack of storag(-) facilities at the mines requires for this cold weather demand a mining capacity much in'excess of that necessary for the summer needs. Under such a system there is constantly in progress a fieroe struggle for business, and a reduction to prices so low that they often fail to eover the actual ” x 57", developing 36 to 40 h. p.) ; four forward speed transmission; Bosch dual ignition; 36-inch by 4-inch tires; Continental Demountable rims; Mercedes type honeycomb radiator; dash adjustment for carburetor. Furthermore this car has bigness, strength, proved durability, beauty, fine finish, comfort. Still further, it is a Chalmers car. On the radiator is the famous blue and white monogram. And the price, including all these unusual features of value, is $1800. A man at the circus for the first time viewed in amazement the giraffe. After looking the animal over for some time and i nquiring if it had a name, he tu r ned shruggingly away saying, “There ain't no such animal." Many motorists, hearing of the Chalmers “ Th i rty -six” for the first time, then learning the price, have felt much the same way. But they are wrong. There really is such a car as the Chalmers “Thirty-six,” with the features named above-for $1800. You c a see this car now at our dealer's store near you. And it will look better to you there than it does in this advertisement. See it. Ride in it. Place your order as early as you can because there is sure to be an over-demand. Ideal Car for the Farmer This is an ideal car realized. A car perfectly adapted to the needs of the up·to-date farmer. The long stroke motor gives all the power and speed you can want, without useless burning of gasoline. The four forward speed t ransmission gives perfect flexibility for hills, sand, traffic and straightaway. Big tires, 36-inch by 4-inch, give riding ease and insure low tire upkeep bills. The “ Thirty-six “ is heavy where weight means maximum strength, but there is no useless weight. We claim that this car is lighter than any other car of the same power, roominess and strength, and that it is stronger than any other car of the same weight. This car overcomes the inconveniences of all preceding cars. The Chalmers Self-starter, air pressure type, does away with the trouble of cranking. Big tires and Continental Demountable rims rob punctures of their terrors. Given Severe Tests While the “Thirty-six” has every up-to-the-minute improvement, still there is not a single utried principle or part in its makeup. In November, 1910, we started three of these cars on the road to test them-ne in the mountains of Pennsylvania, one in the sands and heat of Florida, and one in the varied conditions of the Middle West. They were run an average of 10,000 miles each before we O. K.'d the model for manufacture. Here is a big car-big radiator-big hood- big wheels and tires-big body with big roomy seats-big, strong frame-big axles-big all over, and yet it isn't a cumbersome, costly upkeep car. Not only has this car all of these unusual features of construction and convenience, but with them it has beauty. It is a le car. Compare With Many Cars There are bigger cars than the “Thirty·six” and smaller ones. Cars of more power and of less. Heavier cars, lighter cars. There are higher priced cars and lower priced cars. And yet we ask you to consider this car on the basis that it is the most nearly ideal car for the farmer of all that are made. Take the size, the power, the conveniences, the construction, the comfort, the beauty and the price into consideration in comparison with the same features on all other cars, and see if you do not conclude that in the Chalmers “ Thirty · six “ we have come most nearly to realizing the ideal car for the greatest number of people. A Vote of Confidence Public announcement of this car was first made on July 6th. Prior to that date, dealers had signed contracts for all we can make. They were anxious to sign up for twice the number, but we had to allot just so many to each territory. Since our announcement appeared, the Sales Department has received requests from more than two hundred other dealers, asking for the privilege of handling the Chalmers line in their section. We asked dealers this year for exclusive representation for Chalmers cars in their price classes. Not one dealer was unwill.ng to grant this request, dozens of them giving up other lines in order to hold the Chalmers. The vote of confidence which experienced dealers have given this new Chalmers car is one of the best possible guides for the individual buyer. "30” Fully Equipped, $1500 The Chalmers “30” and Chalmers “Forty” are continued for 1912 and offer greater values than ever before because of the improved methods of manufacture and added equipment. The “30” sells for $1500, including magneto, gas lamps, Prest-O-Lite tank, Chalmers mohair top, and automatic windshield. Last year this car so equipped brought $1750. The “Forty” sells for $2750, including the same complete equipment. More than a year ago, as the heading of an advertisement, we used an expression which was frequently heard in automobile trade circles: “This Is Another Chalmers Year.” It was true then, and we repeat it now, for it is more apparently true now than in any other year. “This is another Chalmers year." 1912 catalog will be mailed on request. Chalmers Motor Company, Detroit, Mich.