Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 87.djvu/103

Rh is meager as bearing upon the questions raised. Few efforts for public service would be so apt and so inexpensive in proportion to probable return as the systematic dissemination of information bearing upon fish farming: but the data must be based upon judicious and continued experiment under conditions such as would confront the prospective fish farmers.

Doubtless a great deal of experience has been gained by private persons with interest and initiative, but there has been lacking a clearing house. There are valuable bits of information isolated or scattered and wanting for complete fruitfulness the benefits of interchange of experience, coordination and compilation. It would be practical indeed if the persons interested in effective fishery development would form themselves into associations, limited in territory by the similarity of conditions and problems as well as by the requirements of distance. The advantages to be gained would be palpable; there would be not only a fruitful interchange of ideas and experience, but a more explicit definition of difficulties and problems, so that the public department whose responsibility is to serve would be enlightened as to the form of service required.

The present purpose is fulfilled if the meaning of fish conservation is made clearer, and if the science of fisheries has been related in an unmistakable way to the vital interests of our whole people. The fish conservationist should orient himself with reference to some of the multitudinous phases of human interests and endeavors, and it is equally desirable that his orientation should be understood. One may look far over a landscape with the feet yet firmly upon the ground. A distant goal is not usually to be reached except by a succession of well-ordered steps, but perhaps it is also true that the farther the vision extends, the more readily may the steps be well ordered to the desired end.