Evening Star Newspaper, June 22, 1930, Page 93

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. JUNE zz | e e—— How Uncle Sam Is Planning to Cut Dozon the Time Between Bites for His Anglers, Spending a Million a Year for the Next Five Years on a Nation-Wide Program for Bigger and Better Fishing. BY PEG STRUTHERS KIENAST. ‘ ‘ IVE million dollars ought to buy a Jot of fish” says the Average = Angler as President Ho®ver signs H. R. 7405 before starting away over the week end to personally sttend to retrieving a couple. The bill authorizes the expenditure of $5,000,- 000 over a period of five years, and the manner of its spending will make good fireside chatter in the off seasons when the willow baskets are being cuffed about in the cellar closet by the old overshoes. Chronic fishermen know a surprising amount about the object of their pursuit. Even the meekest clerk in the office pipes up now and then contributing a pat comment on the com- plex biology of fresh water fishes. If the husband approaches the aquarium with a mean expression, he is probably about to send for the Bureau of Fisheries bulletin on gold- fish. He has been secretely storing up knowl- edge on the life habits of Emma and Ellen while you have been decorating their habitat with artificial grass and a pretzel-like castle. MIANTD(E strong .men are devoting time to the science of aquiculture in the division of scientific inquiry under the Bureau of Fish- eries. There is a plan to utilize waste lands in the interior for the propagation of game fish, which at the same time can serve as a food crop for the aquiculturist. In other words, they plan to produce fish on thousands of acres of land which are at the present time producing nothing. Two hatcheries, one dedicated to bass and one to trout, are now used entirely for scientific ex- perimentation in an effort to develop more efficient means for propagating game fishes. BEstablishment of many new stations will be possible under the new appropriation. Oddly enough, the geopraphical set-up for this work seems to be encroaching upon territory pop- ularly supposed to be dedicated to other pur- suits. Hatcheries are planned, among other States, for New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Western Texas, Nevada, Kansas and North Dakota. Reel ’'em cowboy! Well, maybe it can be done. Sunfish, perch, crappie and black bass should go well with the sourdough for an early morning breakfast afield ln! bureau wants results, which is why it 80 heavily stresses the actual life expect- ancy of the fish it plants about the country. It has long been convinced of the futility of planting fry, and is constantly endeavoring to increase its facilities for the production of fingerlings. It has no great respect for “paper fish,” an apt phrase coined by Frank O’'Connell, chief of Nebraska Fish and Game Commission, who heads a conservation association which during two years planted a grand total of 558,- 703 bass. They have bass in Nebraska! And they are real fish, not “futures.” There are game fish, too, in the National Parks, the National Forests and other public lands, placed there without the knowledge or intervention of the Average Angler, but ear- marked for his benefit. These placements of fish, as well as those transported to the Government hatcheries, will be aided by the new bill—which makes possible among other things, the use of two additional cars. There are five now in operation. Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Ne- vada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin are on this accommo- dation route. Individual States have quite a bit to say sbout their fish crops. Under commen law fish and game are an economic resource when caught. Bome States dispose of this crop in a way which appears short sighted to the con- servation-minded director of destines of fish, and in this case the bureau is not possessed of any organic law to right matters. Its only re- course is to discontinue the planting of fish in that State, if there do not exist adequate laws for the protection of fish placed there. Fall into line and get your fish! The sale and interstate shipment of bass has caused many a bone of contention to be laid bare. On the other hand, individual States operate 359 hatcheries, almost 10 times as many as the Bureau of Fisheries now has. Sportsmen's organizations have established nurseries throughout the country, there being 150 active this year, aiding materially in planting game fish in the States, at approximately legal size. Then there is the time-honored howl about favoring commercial fisheries. The present bill comprises 27 items looking to the welfare of the angler and eight devotihg part interest to commercial fisheries. Major activities in behalf of commercial fish- eries are designed to protect the salmon, propa- gate the carp, grow bigger and better lobsters and the like. Commercial fisheries, after all, both the fresh and salt water variety, in no small meas- ure look after themselves, since they return an amount far in excess of that expended in their behalf. Alaskan fur seal and salmon industries are wholly self-supporting. qusn are where you put them"” proclaims the commissioner of fisheries. However, after some of them have been put, they are not received with universal acclaim. Friends of the bass are foes of the carp and catfish. This is especially true in the District of Columbia. Local friends of game fish pounced with glee upon the statement of one Capt. Robinson of Newburgh, contained in Transactions of the American Institute, for 1850. “I brought the carp from France about seven years ago,” he states, “put them in the _1930. P— ive Million Dollars for Good Flshmg' An intimate portrait of a large-mouthed family from Texas. The name is Bass. Hudson River, and obtained protection from our Legislature, which passed a law imposing a2 fine of $50 for destroying them.” They have at last found some one to blame. The Bureau of Pisheries upon request trans- ported some of these fish to widely scattered sections. They thrive under conditions where no other fish can live. Utah Lake, Utah, is an example. The ecarp have not driven out the bass; they have replaced them. The value of the carp catch in this area is about $1,250,- 000 annually, most of which goes to the in- dividual and frequently poor fisherman. Big companies do not fish for carp in this area. The supposed passing of the small-mouth bass from the Potomac is mourned by many an angler. Channel catfish, introduced into the Potomac, share the blame with the carp. The channel catfish do not destroy the spawn, though they may eat a few fry. The small catfish, a native and old resident of the Po- tomac, destroys some spawn. However, the small-mouth bass have not been exterminated. They are just becoming increasingly wary. A week of seining the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal from the District Line to a point several miles above the city, seining only small pockets which could readily be reached, yielded 911 small-mouth bass, and 2,124 large-mouth bass, all from the Potomac. This does not look as if bass have been “wiped out.” Fish are where you put them. In 1921 the bureau produced in its haicheries 1,552,061 bass in a pond acreage of 66.27. For 1929, the last complete fiscal year, the output of bass was 3,238,098 in a pond acreage not exceeding 100, thus achieving more than 100 per cent increase in the output of bass on 50 per cent increase in acreage. Three hundred and twenty-five additional acres of pond space are expected during the coming year %o bring about a corresponding in- crease in the output of bass. Trout fingerlings increased over 150 per cent during the year, the 1929 output totaling 31,- 104.100. In the five-year program new projects ine clude: For the first year a research laboratory on the Pacific Coast; haicheries for game fish, and especially for be-s. For the second year 87 per cent of new activities are for the benefit of game $sh (and 56 per cent exclusively for bass). In the third year there is provision for a research laboratory in Texas. Eighty-five per cent of the authorization for this year s for game fish. Ome hundred per cent of hatcheries included are for game fish (45 per cent being exclusively for bass). The fourth year shows 100 per cent of the new activities confined to game fish (60 per cent exclusively for bass). The final year, which includes establishing & research laboratory in Alaska, shows 66 per cent of all assignments for the benefit of game fish, and 82 per cent exclusively for the benefit of these varieties. Sixty-six per cend of the above proportion will propagate mothe- ing but bass. The bureau’s funds allotted for the maintenance of the division of fish cul- ture will be expended in substantially the same ratio. How long between bites? It won't be long now! Try to Eliminate Waste. HEN any given occupation shows an annual loss in waste material of 40,000,000 tons it stands as a challenge to the efficiency man. This challenge has been presented by the huge wastage of lignin, which represents 30 per cent of the dry material in agricultural waste. Experts of the Bureau of Chemistry and Solt¥- have been able through dry distillation to pro- duce eugenol and guiacol, important in the drug industry, from this lignin. Efforts are being made mow to obtain some commercial application of this process for the use of indus- tries of various sorts. The chemists also have experimented with considerable success in producing starch from sweet potatoes. If they are able to get a satis- factory product, #t will bring about the elimina- tion of the heavy annual loss in culls in the sweet potato industry in the South. -