Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1886 — PISCATORIAL STATISTICS. [ARTICLE]

PISCATORIAL STATISTICS.

Universal Fish Culture Necessary to Supply the Harvest of the Sea. From Turf, Field, and Farm. If Mulhall’s sta'istios are reliable, says an angling journal, there are not far short of 166,000 vessels engaged in Europe and North America in fishing. Between 600,000 and 700,000 men are employed in this industry, and the total annual product of fish is not far short of 1,500,000 tons. Few people realize the meaning of these latter figures. A ton of fish is equal in weight to about twenty-eight sheep; and hence, if Mulhall’s estimate is approximately correct, a year’s fish supply for ten European countries, included in this’estimate, and the United States and Canada might he represented by 42,000,000 sheep. Of this amount the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, and the United States alone aggregate 1,000,000 tons, equivalent to ‘Js.o 0,000 sheep. It has been truly said that we talk in a metaphor of the harvest of the sea, but we have only lately been able to realize what the metaphor means. The Fisheries Exposition in London in 1883 did a great deal to encourage the study of marine biology, and it is with no small degree of satisfaction that wo are able to say that in this much-needed work the United States ranks second to no other. On the other hand, Great Britain, whose fisheries are of vital importance to her for food, has done little, and can not yet boast a laboratory on the seashore. Indeed, Professor Lankester, an eminent authority on marine biology, declares the British fishing industries still barbaric. The produce of the sea is recklessly-seized, regardless of the consequences of the method, the time, or the extent of the depredations. According to English authority, the o d proverb that there are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it no longer holds good. The harvest of the sea in the future, like the harvest on land, needs cultivating. It was shown not long ago that in eight months twentyeight boats engaged in the haddock fishery at Ryemouth, England, used 620 tons of mussels—about 47,000,000 mussels—in the capture of the haddock. Yet Professor L; nkester says that no pains are taken to cultivate or preserve the mussel, and knowledge of its reproduction and growth is still incomplete, as it is of other bait. Soles are every year becoming scarcer, and oysters are becoming more difficult to obtain. At present, said the same authority, absolutely nothing is known of the spawning of the sole; the male fish is not even recognized. The reasons for oysters being scarce are not known, nor how to make them abundant. There are mauy economists in England who maintain that the haphazard and improvident methods of fishing are exhausting the fish supply of that country as sure as mining is exhausting the supply of coal. The supply of many kinds of fish is rapidly diminishing, and the only way to cheek the waste is by systematic study of the conditions which regulate the supply. It is undoubtedly true that “the world could not be fed if men sought their food on land with as little forethought and system as fishermen cast their nets into the sea ?” To what extent these facts, which are causing considerable discussion in England, apply to the United States we are not prepared to say. The excellent work for many years of our fish commission exonerates our Government from the accusation of total neglect of this important industry.

The great variety of colors and dyes obtained from common plants, growing so abundantly almost everywhere, is apparently known to but few persons except chemiss. The well-known huckleberry or blueberry, when boiled down, with an addition of a little alum and a solution of copper as, will develop an excellent blue color; the same treatment, with a solution of nut galls, produces a clean dark brown tint, while with alum, verdigris, and sal ammoniao various shades of purple and red can be obtained. The fruit the elder, so frequently used for coloring so rits, will also produce a blue color when treated with alum. The privet, boiled in a solution of salt, furnishes a serviceable color, and the overrripe berries yield a scarlet red. The seeds of tuo common burning bush (euonyrnous), when treaied with sal ammoniac, produces a beauti ul purplered. The bark of the currant bush, treated with a solution of alum, .produces • a brown. Yellow is obtainable from ..the Vark of. .thq gppjeu tree, ..the box:, the ash*. the buckthWii the -poplar, elm, etc. s ysijj?h. boilJ_d in . water andrtreated witfrialum. Ariively green is furnished by the broom corn.

For an American to marry in Mexico is a somewhat serious business. He must be three times married, twice in Spanish and once in English, besides having a public notice of his intention of marriage placed on a bulletin board for twenty days before the ceremony. This is the law. The public noti e e.an be gotten around by the payment of a sum of money, but a res dence of one month is necessary. The three ceremonies are the contract of marriage, the civil marriage—the only marriage recognized by law since l.*>sß—and the usual but not obligatory church service. The first two must take pla e before a judge, and in the prese ce of at least four witnesses and the American Consul. The civil ma riage is the legal form of marriage. These ceremonies are neoes ariJy in Spanish. Most weddings are confirmed by a church service. Love is a little confidence game in which bo h parties are taken in by the clergyman.