beds are not plentiful, and many dealers are compelled
to put small oysters on the market. The Bureau of Fisheries has made a
study of these food beds, and by using fertilizer, such as farmers use
on their land, have been able to make such beds of sea-plants grow where
they do not naturally exist. These experiments have been tried only a
short time, but the results have been entirely satisfactory, and it is
hoped that before long, rich oyster beds may be made to grow in any part
of the ocean where oysters will thrive.

In the Great Lakes the fishing is so heavy that it is probable that the
supply of perch and white fish would be very low by this time if
fish-culture had not been carried on to so great an extent. White fish,
lake trout, pike and perch may be hatched in such large numbers as to
keep the fisheries up to their present yield.

Another important work of the Fisheries Bureau is to keep up the supply
of cod for the great fisheries on the New England coast. For the last
twenty years profitable shore cod fishery has been kept up on grounds
that had been entirely exhausted before and also where cod had never
been found before. At the wharves, government officers from the
Fisheries Bureau board the fishing boats when they come in and take the
eggs from the fish. These are taken to the government hatchery and
either the eggs or the young fish are put back into the sea, and so keep
up an unending supply.

Alaska is one of the most important fishing regions of the world. For
this entire Territory, the United States paid Russia $7,200,000 and many
thought that the money was practically thrown away, since it apparently
bought for us nothing but barren, ice-bound shores. But since it became
a part of the United States, Alaska has yielded fishery products alone
amounting in value to $158,000,000--twenty-two and a half times the
price paid. Of this, $49,000,000 came from the fur seal fishery,
$86,000,000 from salmon and $23,000,000 from other fish.

About $1,500,000 worth of sponges are now taken from Florida waters each
year. Naturally the failure of the industry would be a serious loss to
the state. But the natural sponge beds are being rapidly exhausted, and
the Bureau of Fisheries is convinced that the continuation of the sponge
fisheries must depend on artificial planting. Sponges can be produced
from cuttings at a cost much less than that of taking them from the
natural beds.

Rhode Island has been successful in