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solely on account of prejudice. It is palatable and nutritious, and its food is but little different from that of the haddock and other valued food fishes. It is extensively eaten in Europe, and during the past few years it has grown in favor in England, where 5,000,000 pounds, with a value to the fishermen of $82,000, were marketed in 1914. This large and increasing production of a cheap and excellent food is a boon to the people at large, while the fishermen receive about $28 per ton for their catch as against $8 which they would receive if the Government were to engage in the unprofitable production of fertilizer under the conditions recently proposed in this country.

To introduce the dogfish or any other unutilized fish into consumption in the face of general prejudice and ignorance of its qualities and the lukewarm interest of the fishermen themselves will require time and a well-considered practical campaign. It will involve demonstrations and publicity to acquaint the people with the qualities of the fishes and the methods of cooking and preparing them and marketing experiments on a commercial scale. H. R. 11254 appears to give authority for effective work of this character, and, moreover, it makes it possible to extend it not only to the dogfish, but to other marine pests of equal or greater destructiveness. The bureau regards the bill as a piece of valuable constructive legislation, and urges that it be given favorable consideration and passed.

I am inclosing a memorandum on the dogfishes which was submitted to a preceding session of Congress when a similar measure was under consideration.

H. M. SMITH, Commissioner.

MEMORANDUM RESPECTING DOGFISHES.

The dogfishes are little sharks, weighing, when adult, from 5 to 15 pounds. They get their popular name from their habit of traveling in large schools or packs like dogs or wolves, and their chief present interest to the fishermen arises from their predacious habit and ravenous appetites. They feed solely on animal food, which they get wherever it is most readily obtainable, and on the fishing grounds this is usually on the trawl lines or in the nets of the fishermen.

Trawl lines are long stout lines to which shorter lines. each with a hook, are attached at intervals of about 6 feet. They are stretched on the bottom, held in place by suitable anchors, and marked by buoys, and as a single dory or fishing boat will often fish several thousand hooks, each baited with a piece of herring, alewife, or other fish, the fishing banks are strewn with food which the dogfish finds acceptable and readily obtainable. When a school of dogfish appears they greedily seize these baits and either carry them away or are themselves hooked, the result to the fishermen being essentially the same in either case, for the line, set for merchantable fish, is either denuded of its lures or is loaded with dogfish for which the fisherman can find no market. The address and rapacity of these pests is such that when they are on the banks or along shore in large bodies the baits are seized before the valuable fish can take them, and the fisherman loses his time, the labor expended in setting and hauling his lines, the value of his bait, and all of the other items which enter into the expenses of the fishery.

In the case of the gill-net fishery the dogfishes are attracted by the helpless food fishes enmeshed in the nets, and they either tear them bodily away and devour them or bite them in two, leaving nothing but the head to show where a valuable fish had been. Worse than this in some respects is the damage wrought to the nets, the sharp teeth of the dogfish cutting the like shears and often leaving of the poor fisherman's property little but a string of tatters attached to the foot and lead lines.

Under these conditions the fisherman can do nothing to protect himself, and his only recourse to save his property and avoid an utter waste of efforts is to abandon the fishery, often his only source of livelihood, until such time as his enemy has departed. This is no rare occurrence, but a common one on all parts of the New England coast, over a wide stretch of the Pacific coast as well, and to some extent on the shores of the Middle Atlantic States. Even the purse seiner fishing at sea will sometimes inadvertently inclose a school of dogfish and have his net cut and torn to pieces, the pound-net fisherman along shore will find his trap filled with dogfish to the exclusion of fish of value, and lobster pots take dogfish instead of lobsters.

The loss entailed by the destruction of gear and the enforced abandonment of the fisheries by all classes of fishermen over wide areas amounts to large sums annually. The Massachusetts Fish and Game Commission states that the observable damage to the fisheries of that State alone can be conservatively estimated at not less than $400,000 per year, and this loss to those immediately concerned must have its reflex in the increased cost of fish to the consumer. The effects of the dogfish nuisance,

therefore, are not only observable over a considerable part of the immediate coast line, but are indirectly distributed over the large section of the country depending on the sea for its supply of fish. Owing to the abundance of the dogfishes, their wide distribution, their remarkable swimming powers, and their wandering habits, which carry them over broad expanses of the seas in which they live, it is probable that but little can be done toward the material reduction of their numbers. A school marauding on the coast one week may be far away the next and its place may be occupied by another host that has come from an unknown distance in the open sea. If they can not be exterminated, the only economic solution of the problem which they present is that they should be utilized and the curse of their presence converted into a blessing. This can be done only in accord with sound economic principles. A bounty, aside from other objectionable features, merely distributes the loss and can have no other effect. It acts like a system of fire insurance with no provision for preventing fires or minimizing their destructiveness. The loss still exists, but its burden is borne by a larger number of persons.

Leaving out of consideration certain secondary or subsidiary uses, principally of waste parts, fishes are economically utilized for fertilizer and for food. For the first purpose they must be cheap as compared with other species which are abundant in fairly regular supply, easily caught and easily handled. If the dogfish be economically available for the manufacturer of fertilizer it will be utilized by factories privately owned and always on the watch for a supply of suitable and cheap raw material. There is no doubt that fertilizer of good quality can be produced from dogfish, the only question being whether the fish can be obtained at a price low enough to show a profit on operations. If they can not be profitably used by private works, there is no reason to suppose that they can be by those under Government control.

The value of the fish will be governed competitively with other fishes, and if the price be arbitrarily fixed too low the fishermen will not supply the fish, and if too high, as in bills proposed for the establishment of Government reduction works, there will be an operating loss and the excess price of raw material will be in effect a bounty to the fishermen.

None but the cheapest fish will be used for fertilizer, and, considering the heavy wear and tear on gear involved in taking dogfish, it is doubtful if they can be taken profitably except for food, and that appears to be the only means by which they may be converted into an economic product. That they are not at present eaten in the United States is no justification for the belief that they can not be introduced into the national diet. There are numerous instances of despised fishes and other aquatic animals attaining high favor after their qualities became known. Within a comparatively recent time the sturgeon, especially in the Great Lakes, was regarded as a nuisance and ruthlessly destroyed, but to-day a single large female fish may sell for as much as $150. The silver hake of the New England coast was formerly wholly unutilized. but is gradually coming into the markets; the catfishes are becoming high-priced fishes, and frogs are regarded as a delicacy, and the subject of frog farms is exciting interest as a source of profit. Instances might be multiplied.

The failure to eat dogfish in the United States appears to be due to prejudice against them rather than to any lack of nutritiousness of palatability. There are two species of dogfishes on the Atlantic coast, the spined or horned dogfish, which has the more northern range, and the smooth dogfish, which is generally more abundant south of Cape Cod. These differ somewhat in the character of their flesh, the spined species being more oily and resembling in composition the medium grades of salmon. This fish is well suited for canning. The smooth dogfish is drier and when used fresh its flavor and qualities have been likened to those of halibut and swordfish. Neither of these fish has objectionable or unclean feeding habits, one feeding on organisms similar to jelly fishes and possibly on true fishes, and the other on crabs, starfish, and other bottom-dwelling animals. Both, so far as food is concerned, resemble other fishes highly esteemed on the table. Their flesh is white and in external appearance they are not repulsive; their skins secrete little mucus and they never look slimy like cod and haddock when massed in the holds of vessels. They are eaten extensively in various parts of Europe. In Norway and Sweden they are used both fresh and salted or dried. In England, where there was formerly the same prejudice existing as in the United States, the spined dogfish has emerged from its odium and is gradually assuming a position of importance as a food fish, about five and one-half million pounds being used in 1912. In the fried-fish shops it masquerades and is readily eaten as plaice, one of the most popular of English fishes, thus demonstrating that the elimination of prejudice against it is a prime factor in its introduction into consumption.

Certain secondary products of the dogfish could probably find a market if the value of its flesh could be established. The liver is rich in oil, having most of the qualities of cod-liver oil; its skin makes an attractive leather, and is unsurpassed abrasive for fine wood and ivory workers, and the fins are rich in gelatine. All of these utilities should be convertible into profit, and if they can be availed of on a commercial scale the dogfish problem could be solved to the satisfaction of both fishermen and the consuming public, and a heavy annual industrial loss would be converted into a profit.

This bill is intended to provide authority and means for the attempted attainment of these ends by inducing the consumer to recognize the qualities of the dogfish and other waste fishery products and in educating the fishermen to prepare them and market them in such manner as will conduce to that result. It is a practical measure, and it is believed that it will yield practical results.

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LEAVE OF ABSENCE AT NAVY YARDS, GUN
FACTORIES, ETC.

APRIL 27, 1916.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. FARR, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the

following REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 11168.]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 11168) granting 30 days' leave of absence in each year, without forfeiture of pay during such leave, to employees at United States navy yards, gun factories, naval stations, and arsenals, having had the same under consideration, unanimously report the same favorably with the following amendment, and as amended recommend that the bill do pass:

Lines 7 and 8, strike out the proviso, which reads, "Provided, That pro rata leave with pay shall be allowed to those serving fractional parts of a year," and in lieu thereof insert the following: That it shall be lawful to allow pro rata leave only to those serving 12 consecutive months or more."

Under existing law mechanics and laborers in the navy yards receive 15 days leave of absence without forfeiture of pay, while the clerical forces in the executive departments in Washington receive 30 days' leave, as also do the employees of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Government Printing Office, Immigration Service, and Customs Service. About 40,000 employees of the Government are now enjoying the status of 30 days' leave without forfeiture of pay.

The committee believe that this discrimination against the employees at the navy yards, gun factories, naval stations, and arsenals should not continue longer and that the increase to them of the leave of absence from the 15 days, as now granted, to 30 days would be proper and just.

The bill under consideration, as amended, does not change existing law in any other respect than to increase the leave of absence from 15 to 30 days to these particular employees.

O

NUMBER OF CADETS AT MILITARY ACADEMY.

APRIL 27, 1916.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. HAY, from the committee of conference, submitted the following CONFERENCE REPORT.

[To accompany S. 4876.]

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendments of the House to the bill (S. 4876) entitled "An act to provide for an increase in the number of cadets at the United States Military Academy," having met, after full and free conference have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows:

That the Senate recede from its disagreement to the amendments of the House numbered 1, 3, 4, and 6, and agree to the same.

Amendment numbered 2:

That the Senate recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the House numbered 2, and agree to the same with an amendment as follows:

In lieu of the matter inserted by said amendment insert the following: twenty of whom shall be selected from among the honor graduates of educational institutions having officers of the Regular Army detailed as professors of military science and tactics under existing law or any law hereafter enacted for the detail of officers of the Regular Army to such institutions, and which institutions are designated as "honor schools" upon the determination of their relative standing at the last preceding annual inspection regularly made by the War Department; and the House agree to the same.

Amendment numbered 5:

That the Senate recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the House numbered 5, and agree to the same with an amendment as follows:

In lieu of the matter inserted by said amendment insert the following: in number as nearly equal as practicable; and the House agree to the same.

JAMES HAY,

S. H. DENT, Jr.,

JULIUS KAHN,

Managers on the part of the House.

GEO. E. CHAMBERLAIN,

G. M. HITCHCOCK,

H. A. DU PONT,

Managers on the part of the Senate.

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