000 the value of apparatus and appliances; $5,342,000 the value of shore property; and $2,579,000 the amount of cash capital invested. The number of fishing vessels was 6,933 (aggregating 126,453 tons) and the number of open boats and vessels under 5 tons burden was 83,548. The equipment of the fisheries was 233,256 gill nets; 81,191 fyke and hoop nets; 16,104 pound nets, trap nets and weirs; 7,966 seines; and 17,787 other nets; lines valued at $476,000; dredges, tongs and rakes valued at $375,000. The total value of the catch was $54,031,000, representing an aggregate weight of 1,893,450,000 pounds - including the weight only of the edible parts of the oysters, clams, scallops, etc. Of the total catch 60 per cent was taken with nets and seines, 8 per cent with lines and baited hooks and 7 per cent with dredges and rakes. Of the whole, food fish amounted to 1,046,541,000 pounds, valued at $29,254,000; menhaden amounted to 394,776,000 pounds, valued at $893,000; oysters, clams, etc., amounted to 347,799,000 pounds, valued at $18,752,000; lobsters and crabs, 96,225,000 pounds, valued at $3,466,000; whale products, 4,028,000 pounds, valued at $497,000; and sponges, 622,000 pounds, valued at $545,000. As to individual species, the oyster fishery yields the largest value - $15,713,000, or 29 per cent of the total value; salmon is second in value, yielding $3,347,000, or 6 per cent; cod is third, $2,914,000, or 5 per cent; then follow shad, $2,113,000 (4 per cent); lobster, $1,931,000 (4 per cent); clams, $1,896,000 (4 per cent); squeteague (weakfish), $1,776,000 (3 per cent); halibut, $1,562,000 (3 per cent); haddock, $1,308,000 (2 per cent); German carp, $1,135,000 (2 per cent). In the order of weight the catches were: menhaden, 394,776,000 pounds; oysters allowing 7 pounds of meat to the bushel, 233,309,000 pounds; herring, 125,050,000 pounds; cod, 110,054,000 pounds; salmon, 90,417,000 pounds; alewives (river herring), 89,978,000 pounds; haddock, 59,987,000 pounds; crabs, 52,913,000 pounds; squeteague, 49,869,000 pounds; German carp, 42,763,000 pounds; lake herring, 41,118,000 pounds; halibut, 34,441,000 pounds; hake, 34,340,000 pounds; mullet, 33,703,000 pounds; pollock, 29,462,000 pounds; shad, 27,641,000; flounders, 23,346,000 pounds; shrimp and prawn, 19,080,000 pounds; catfish, 17,817,000 pounds; buffalo fish, 16,729,000 pounds; pike perch, 15,247,000 pounds; red snapper, 13,498,000 pounds; mackerel, 12,103,000 pounds; lake trout, 12,024,000 pounds; mussels, 8,543,000 pounds; scup, 8,414,000 pounds; suckers, 8,199,000 pounds; yellow perch, 7,898,000; whitefish, 7,708,000 pounds. The above named fishes constitute 97 per cent of the entire catch of the country. The distribution of the several species of food fish, regarded commercially, is as follows: Alewives are caught chiefly in Virginia and Maryland; black bass in Florida and Illinois; bluefish in New York and New Jersey; carp in Illinois and Ohio; catfish in Louisiana; cod in Massachusetts and Maine; eels in New York and Massachusetts; flounders in Massachusetts, California and New York; haddock in Massachusetts and Maine; halibut in Washington; herring in Maine; mackerel in Massachusetts; mullet in Florida; pike perch in Ohio; pollock in Massachusetts; salmon in Washington, Ore gon and California; sardines in California; sea bass in New Jersey; shad in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey and Florida; squeteague in New York and North Carolina; whitefish in Michigan; crabs in Virginia and Maryland; lobsters in Maine; oysters in Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and South Carolina, in the order named. The Fisheries Bureau divides the country for supervisory and statistical purposes into five "Divisions": these, with the several amounts of their catch, and percentages of the whole catch for the year 1908, are as follows: Atlantic Coast Division, 1,344,655,000 pounds; 71 per cent. Gulf of Mexico Division 117,723,000 pounds; 6 per cent. Pacific Coast Division, 176,150,000 pounds; 10 per cent. Mississippi River Division, 148,284,000 pounds; 8 per cent. Great Lakes Division, 106,632,000 pounds; 5 per cent. The relative importance of the fisheries in the several States may be gauged by the values of their individual catches (in 1908) as follows: Massachusetts, $7,095,000; chiefly cod, haddock and mackerel, with herring, pollock and halibut of less importance. Virginia, $4,716,000; chiefly oysters, with shad, menhaden, clams and crabs secondary, New York, $4,594,000; chiefly oysters, with squeteague, bluefish, flounders and clams secondary. Washington, $3,513,000; chiefly salmon and halibut, with oysters secondary. Florida, $3,380,000; chiefly mullet and sponges, with red snapper, shad and oysters secondary. Maryland, $3,306,000; chiefly oysters, with crabs, shad and alewives secondary. Maine, $3,257,000; lobsters, with cod, herring, haddock and clams secondary. New Jersey, $3,069,000; chiefly oysters, with squeteague, clams and shad secondary. Connecticut, $2,982,000; chiefly oysters. California, $1,970,000; chiefly salmon, with oysters secondary. North Carolina, $1,776,000; chiefly shad and oysters. Rhode Island, $1,752,000; chieflv oysters. Louisiana, $1,569,000; chiefly oysters and shrimp. Michigan, $1,473,000; chiefly lake trout and herring. Illinois, $1,436,000; chiefly German carp. Oregon, $1,356,000; chiefly salmon. Wisconsin, $1,067,000; chiefly lake trout and herring. Ohio, $840,000; chiefly lake herring and carp. Georgia, $701,000; chiefly oysters. Pennyslvania, $513,000; chiefly shad. South Carolina, $288,000; chiefly oysters. Missouri, $271,000; chiefly German carp. Indiana, $223,000; chiefly mussel products. Iowa, $215,000; chiefly German carp. Arkansas, $207,000; chiefly buffalo fish and catfish. Minnesota, $192,000; chiefly lake herring. Tennessee, $112,000; chiefly buffalo fish and catfish. Kentucky, $110,000; chiefly catfish. New Hampshire, $53,000; chiefly lobsters. Kansas, $28,000; chiefly German carp. Nebraska, $22,000; chiefly German carp. South Dakota, $4,200; chiefly buffalo fish. West Virginia, $2,000; chiefly carp and catfish. Oklahoma, $300; chiefly drumfish. With the object of restoring and maintaining the commercial fisheries of the country, and the stocking of its interior waters, the Bureau of Fisheries has 50 permanent hatcheries and 76 auxiliaries— subhatcheries and egg collecting stations. Nearly all the output of these establishments goes to the original sources from which the eggs were obtained. Besides the eggs, which are distributed mainly to State fishery commissions, young fish are widely distributed to all sections. These young fish are graded as "fry" up to the time the yolksac is absorbed and the fish begins to feed; "advanced fry" from the first classification up to the time they are one inch in length; "fingerlings," from one inch in length up to one year old; "yearlings," from one year old up to two years. In the fiscal year ended 30 June 1915, the number of eggs distributed was 536,260,143, of which 326,350,000 were pike perch; 98,940,000 whitefish; and 34,466,923 chinook salmon. The number of fry distributed was 3,694,281,699, of which 1,294,156,000 were flounders; 500,730,000 pollock; 405,400,000 whitefish; 282,820,000 pike perch; 260,133,000 cod; 195,267,000 yellow perch; 194,670,000 lobsters and 161,980,000 white perch. Of yearlings, fingerlings and adults, there were distributed 58,215,962. The total distribution of fish and eggs was 4,288,757,804, comprising 44 different species. The widest distribution was of brook trout: 5,700,263 fry and 6,965,167 fingerlings, yearlings and adults were sent to over 2,400 different localities. A characteristic feature of the New England fisheries is the employment of a large fleet of fine schooner-rigged vessels in the offshore fisheries for cod, haddock, hake, halibut and mackerel. Cod is the principal fish so taken, part of the catch being made on the Grand Banks and other banks lying off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia; and part on the very extensive and prolific banks adjacent to the New England shore, the most noted of which is Georges Bank. The most important of the New England boat and shore fisheries are those for sea-herring (caught chiefly in brush weirs), lobsters (caught in pots made of laths), soft-shell clams and oysters. In the catch of herring, soft-shell clams and lobsters, Maine surpasses all other States. The oyster industry of the Middle Atlantic States gives to that region the importance which its fisheries have attained. The principal oyster grounds are in Long Island Sound, Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay, a large part of the output now being taken from planted beds. An immense fleet of sailing vessels and boats is engaged in dredging and tonging oysters and running them to market. Other important salt-water products of this section are bluefish, menhaden, sea bass, squeteague, hard clams and crabs. The anadromous fishes, the shad, the alewives and the striped bass, support valuable fisheries. The South Atlantic region has no noteworthy vessel fisheries, but its pound-net, gill-net and seine fisheries for alewives, shad, sea mullet and squeteague are important, shad being the leading product. The most prominent products of the Gulf States are mullet, red snappers, squeteague, oysters, shrimp and sponges. The Pacific States have very important vessel fisheries addressed to cod, halibut and whales, and very extensive shore fisheries for salmon, herring and oysters. The salmon fishery is the most valuable in the world, immense quantities of quinnat, blue-back, silver and other salmon being caught in the Sacramento and Columbia rivers, in Puget Sound and in Alaska. Much of the yield is canned. Statistics for the Alaska fisheries for 1914 show the total investment for that year at $37,038,632, of which 80 per cent was in the salmon fishery. There were 21,200 persons_engaged, of whom 11,178 were white. The product was valued at $21,242,975. The pack of salmon for the season was 4,056,653 cases of 48 pounds each-a total of 294,719,344 pounds. The number of salmon caught was 54,651,915. The other fishery of importance in Alaska is the whale fishery. In 1914, 482 whales were captured by the two shore stations, and about 50 by the 4 whaling vessels in the Arctic. The total value of products was $317,349. From the 5 private salmon hatcheries in Alaska there were liberated in the year ended 30 June 1915, 79,619,500 fry of red varieties of salmon; and from the 2 government hatcheries, 51,163,100 fry. Besides this restocking of the Alaskan waters there are several streams used by salmon in spawning, which are closed by law against fishing. Waste of fish at the canneries is very severely dealt with by the government under the law of 1906. The fisheries of the Great Lakes are the most important lake fisheries in the world, those in the United States waters producing over 100,000,000 pounds of excellent food fish annually. Lake Michigan has the largest catch, amounting to 41 per cent of the total. Lake Erie yields 34 per cent: Lake Huron, 13 per cent; Lake Superior, 9 per cent; Lake Ontario, 2 per cent. The principal fishes are whitefish, lake herring or cisco, lake trout, pike perch and yellow perch. The numerous interior waters of the country are well supplied with economic animals and support valuable fisheries. The most productive waters are the Mississippi River and tributaries. The species figuring most conspicuously in the catch are black bass, buffalo fish, carp, crappies, suckers, frogs and mussels, the shells of the last named being extensively used in making pearl buttons. Canning and Preserving. The 1914 census of manufactures reported 538 establishments in the United States in that year engaged in canning and otherwise preserving fish and oysters, with products amounting to $58,283,404 an increase of 44.1 per cent since 1909. Canned fish amounted in value to $41,321,593. The largest item was canned salmon, $27,633,284; sardines were second, with $6,238,933; followed by oysters, $2,676,951; shrimp, $1,725,621; tuna, $1,638,675; clams, $670,363; all other canned fish, $737,766. Of smoked and dried fish there were prepared 28,713,806 pounds, valued at $2,759,341. The largest item was |