Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/554

primary importance. The formation of reservation districts for absolute closure during successive periods of years, within which we may have, every five or ten miles, smaller perpetual biological reservations for breeding centers, will solve the problems of preservation in a better manner than the present laws for closed and open seasons. In Germany the Elster River pearl mussel beds and in France the marine mussel and oyster fisheries have been saved and developed by proper legislation and governmental supervision. In this country the business of oyster propagation and farming has been profitably established under such well-developed laws as those of Connecticut. It would be difficult to attempt an estimate of the remarkable achievement of the Bureau of Fisheries in the field of aquaculture. The shad, the salmon and now the fur-seal have been saved from extermination. So abalones may be raised in the sea as easily as chickens upon the land. The coastal waters must be surveyed for leasing by the state and then a police force organized to guard the marine farms from all the poaching pirates. It can not be emphasized too often that in direct ratio with the increase of population the neglected food resources of land and sea must be conserved and developed. The company manufacturing rubber and fertilizer and extracting iodine from kelp should only be allowed to cut the seaweed under such restrictions as will preserve the natural home and food supply of all the countless dependent organisms. The inherent tendency of man to rob the earth and sea in order to promote his own selfish interests must be restrained for the larger benefit of his fellows and the salvation of his descendants from want. The sea is the last great field for human exploration and exploitation. We know so little of its vast resources that we can scarcely dream of the possible future industries which will arise under a wisely administered system of aquaculture.