Hon. George T. Mills, Commissioner of Fisheries, Carson City, Nevada:

DEAR SIR: I am desirous of meeting with representatives of the various State Fish Commissions or Exposition Commissions, at the Fisheries Building, Jackson Park, Ill., at 2 o'clock P. M., October 18th, for a final settlement of the question of space for the live-fish exhibits. It is my desire to meet the requirements of the several States to the fullest extent practicable, and I feel, in order to secure a satisfactory arrangement, based upon a full understanding of the conditions, it is necessary that I shall have the opportunity of meeting the gentlemen interested at the place and date designated, where explanations can be more intelligently made.

In order to assure the Exposition management that there will be a satisfactory display of live fish during the whole term of the Exposition in the space which may be assigned to you, I beg you will be prepared to submit data relating to the following leading ques

tions:

1. The amount of money already appropriated or assigned for this purpose.

2.

The amount of prospective funds which are assured.

3. The facilities for transporting and maintaining exhibits. What species of fish you propose to show, and the number of

4.

each.

5. When the State authorities will be ready to begin installation.

Trusting that I may have the pleasure of your presence at this meeting, I remain,

Yours, very respectfully,

J. W. COLLINS,

Chief of the Department of Fish and Fisheries.

In response to same, as no appropriation has been made by Nevada for an exhibit, or for any other purpose pertaining to the World's Fair, I regretfully stated my reasons for not participating or placing an exhibit among those of our sister States.

While it would be most agreeable to the Commissioner, and no doubt of resultant good to the State to meet the National representatives of this important interest, the lack of an appropriation at this present date has prevented our co-operation.

EXCHANGE OF REPORTS WITH STATES.

The prompt receipt of fish reports from other States in exchange for those sent out by our Commission have accumulated and grown into quite a useful library. Information from a practical standpoint can be found in these reports, thus placing valuable matter conveniently at hand. Many of these reports are large and handsomely bound books, Great Britain, Australia and the Dominion of Canada being on our exchange list.

WITH CALIFORNIA FISH COMMISSION.

Last year, 1891, for the more economical advantages to the State, as well as an opportunity to accommodate our sister State of California, I made arrangements with their Commission to take spawn within our State, the joint expenses to be equally divided.

Major J. B. Overton, Superintendent of the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Works, kindly tendered the privilege of his spawning beds at Marlette Lake, as well as other facilities to be enjoyed through conveniences connected with the company's property.

These arrangements perfected, the California Commission delegated Mr. E. W. Hunt, a practical fish culturist and long associated with their Commission, to represent their interests.

Season and weather conspired to the advantage of the work, resulting in the gathering of 725,000 eggs, 362,000 of which, through the agreement, belonged to and were taken to the Bear Valley Hatchery, Marin county, California, the report on same of the California Fish Commission being as follows:

"Having failed to procure any trout spawn in the spring of 1891 for the above reasons, the Commission set to work to see what could be done in the matter of obtaining the spawn of the Eastern brook trout. Application was made to the United States Fish Commissioner, but he was unable to supply us with any. We then placed ourselves in communication with Hon. George T. Mills, Fish Commissioner for the State of Nevada, asking permission to co-operate with him in procuring spawn of the Eastern brook trout from Marlette Lake, State of Nevada. These negotiations culminated in an arrangement being made between Mr. Mills and this Commission by which each Commission gave the services of one of its deputies, the two Commissions dividing all of the expenses incident to the taking and eyeing of the spawn. By this arrangement, as will be seen by tables and reports hereto attached, we were enabled to distribute 317,000 fry. This arrangement with Mr. Mills was a very generous one on his part, and it is due to him that we should express in this report our appreciation of it. Immediately upon the completion of the distribution of the Eastern brook trout so obtained, the taking and eyeing of Rainbow trout spawn from the Klamath river was commenced. The bulk of the spawn taken was sent to the Bear Valley Hatchery, and, as will be seen by tables hereto attached, resulted in the distribution of 331,000 Rainbow trout. That work has just been completed. At the present time we have made no definite arrangements with Mr. Mills to secure Eastern brook trout eggs this fall, but we feel confident that some efficient plan will be made."

From Different Fish Reports and Writers on Fish Culture. Our Fish Commission, surrounded and protected by the fostering laws of the State, has become so firmly allied to other public and

economic measures demanding legislative action, it may not be out of place, after embodying as I have, the benefits we have derived from our own work, to compile from other State reports the advantages and value of State regulation to fish interests.

Dr. J. C. Parker contributes the following to the Michigan Fish Report for 1890:

The power of man to change natural conditions finds a most striking example in the distribution of the inhabitants of the waters, and in their artificial fecundation and preservation to a point in fish life when it may be said that they are self supporting.

The past experience and constantly accumulating information of this most interesting of subjects, leads those interested in these matters to feel that we are as yet only in the infancy of a vast economic problem, which when successfully solved, will add most materially to the well being of the individual, and the financial and food developing interests of the State.

The operations of the Commission for the past two years, with the increased means placed at its disposal, have carried the economic features of our work far beyond that of any two preceding years, and demonstrated beyond a doubt the power of increasing in a direct arithmetical ratio the producing powers of the board, by improved powers of production with a minimum of disbursemeut; and this ratio can undoubtedly be increased until the amount of young fish to be planted in the waters of the State each year shall be equal to the amount taken out as adult fish and an equal balance obtained.

One of the most gratifying results is the increased intelligent information that is being disseminated and the interest manifested in regard to this work throughout the State. Letters of inquiry in regard to the methods of the commission are rapidly increasing, showing an active interest and an earnest desire to aid in this important work, and if there could be put into the hands of the commissioners the means and power from time to time, to print for distribution among the inhabitants of the State such practical information as the commissioners may desire furnished it would, in our estimation, be of vastly greater importance than the passage of retaliatory and prohibitory laws. The broad fact is that the largest portion of the people of the State are reasonable, intelligent men, law abiding and err through ignorance, rather than inclination. The cultivation and conservation of fish is a comparatively new thought in the body politic, but there is every reason to hope that in process of time the point may be reached when every individual who controls an acre of water will so use it as to fully secure the best results through intelligent culture and care.

The following, from an article in the Popular Science Monthly, by a native of China on the water system of his mother land, seems thoroughly pertinent to the matter under consideration:

Through the abundance of water everywhere, my countrymen, instead of being satisfied to cover the sea, rivers and lakes with their fishing boats, have been able to devote themselves extensively to the raising of fish. The spawn is carefully collected wherever it is found; instead of abandoning it to the channels of the rivers, the watchful shore dweller puts it under protection wherever a suitable supply of water is to be found. The fallow rice fields dammed and flooded in winter are alive with wiggling carps, and even the rain water cistern is turned into a breeding pond. This economical management permits us, without piscicultural societies, to stock the rivers with millions of fry, and to add a considerable variety of fish to fill our bill of fare, a part of which is consumed fresh, while the rest, salted or dried, is dispatched to all parts of the empire and sold at a moderate, but always remunerative price."

The above quotation serves to show what may ultimately be done with our own waters. With the advancing settlement and development of our country, when a denser population shall have grown up, and the necessities for husbanding all our resources for the production of food shall become more urgent and imperative than now, there will probably result a necessity for the use of every available water for the production of food fish.

Seth Green, in New Hampshire Fish Report for 1889, speaks as follows on fish culture:

During the few years which have intervened since the discovery of fish culture, its practice has advanced with rapid strides, and although it is still little more than in its infancy, the laws which govern its management have been so far ascertained and applied that it is now an established art, capable of yielding vast results for the benefit of mankind. The days of doubt and uncertainty have passed away, and numerous experiments, leading invariably to the same end, have established it on a firm basis. For a time cautious persons, even when most enthusiastic, could

not help questioning in their own mind what the final outcome would be, and whether all that was predicted for the new undertaking would be realized; but success in all well-considered and properly conducted attempts has swept away fear and hesitation, and experience may now be said to have fully confirmed the highest hopes of the most sanguine. The possibilities which fish culture suggested were far beyond what can be obtained in other fields of human labor, so greatly exceeding the best results in agriculture that it seemed impossible that they could be realized or that this enterprise would have remained so long undiscovered or undeveloped. But day after day and year after year the theory has been put into practical operation, where all its steps could be and were more accurately noted, and the incredible increase and profit obtained left but one conclusion. No person could be more cautious, more slow to express a positive opinion or to accept a hasty judgment than the writer, but he feels at last that the public can give perfect credence to the claims of fish culture, provided that it be conducted as intelligently and wisely as other departments of human labor.

It must not, however, be forgotten that this new art is as exact and exacting as any other, nor that it has its limits and must be managed with care and not slurred over or slighted. To the indifferent and ignorant it will yield no more than the cultivation of the land, and possibly not as much. Before entering upon the details of practical management it may not be unadvisable to take a general review of fish culture and give some suggestions of practical application. It has been said that an acre of water would produce as much as five acres of land, if it were tilled with equal intelligence. In making such a comparison it must be borne in mind that the crop of one needs no manure, requires no care during its period of growth and after it has once been planted, and that it is harvested by simply taking it from the water in which it dwells. It is almost wholly profit. The other must not merely be planted, but it must be fertilized at great expense and worked and cultivated with assiduous labor of man and beast, and finally, when at last successfully harvested and saved from destruction through disease, insects and the elements, it yields but a meager advance upon the cost of time and trouble.

It has been the habit to cultivate the land and neglect the water; the one has been reduced to a private ownership and constitutes a large part of individual wealth, while the other is a sort of common property too little appreciated to be reduced to possession where this is possible, and abandoned as a sort of waste to yield what it may without care to the few chance persons who make a living out of it. We have tilled the ground four thousand years; we have just begun to till the water.

Fish can be raised with less trouble and cost than any other article of food. The lakes and rivers are full of animal and vegetable life upon which fish can live, now wasted, but which should be utilized by stocking these waters with suitable varieties. There is not only an abundance of food, but it is also true that fish need less food to produce a given amount of flesh than is required by birds or land animals. The amount which will make a pound of poultry or beef will make many pounds of fish. This is owing to the fact that they are cold-blooded and usually inactive animals. When we see them in the water they are in motion because they see us. At time they go long distances in search of breeding spots, but they are, as a rule, quite torpid in their habits. Animal action consumes the system. For this reason those who wish to fatten cattle or poultry keep them confined. Animal heat is also a great consumer of food, and a large share of all that is eaten by warmblooded animals is needed to maintain this vital heat. As fish are cold-blooded, they need but little for this purpose, and most that they take goes to make bulk and weight. The fact that this class of animals will live a long time without eating anything is familiar to all. There is but little waste of their system in any way. We frequently see birds and fishes kept in the same room. While the first are restless and need constant care and feeding and frequent cleaning of their cages, the latter are almost motionless, unless disturbed, and as the water in which they are kept is usually clear and fresh, it has in it but little food. It may be true that a pound of fish does not oontain as much nourishment as a pound of beef, but the difference is by no means as great as the difference in the cost of production. For some purposes of health it is much more valuable than a like weight of other food. Less care and labor are needed to raise fish than to raise other animals or even to raise vegetables.

We must give close attention to our flocks and herds throughout the year and we must toil through a long season to make vegetables grow. Lakes and rivers are well said to be like fields prepared for seed.

Fish only need our help in one way. At breeding times their eggs are mostly destroyed by numerous enemies, and but few are hatched. By artificial means, at a trifling cost, nearly all the eggs can be saved and vast numbers of young produced. It is a curious fact that the stomachs of fish are so often found to be entirely empty of food, and the migratory varieties seem hardly to feed at all while preparing to spawn. This would imply either that they digest very rapidly or can go a long time without nutriment, and probably both of these deductions are true. Heat and motion are the main consumers of food, for animal bodies are physically machines, which must be supplied with fuel if motion is to be generated, and will

wear without friction unless the waste is restored. A man or a horse can only perform his share of work if his body is thoroughly nourished, and, on the other hand, neither needs nor can digest his full amount of food unless he works. The terrestrial animals are warm-blooded and active, many of them in their natural state getting their food by the chase, whereas fish are cold-blooded, and, although occasionally making long journeys, are ordinarily quiet. The culture of fish has been gradually extended from one species to another until we have a fair idea of what can be done in all cases, and those even who try new experiments have much to guide them, and can, up to a certain point, tread with assured footsteps. The following points upon fish culture seem to be established:

1. Fish culture, extending to every desirable variety of fish, is entirely practicable.

2. It may, under proper management, be made profitable to the producer, as much or more so than the cultivation of land, or of land animals, and on similar conditions.

3. It may furnish to all classes an abundance of cheap and most nutritious and healthful food.

4. It is absolutely necessary in order to the preservation of the fish of the country from total destruction.

5. Every section of our country and all its creeks, rivers, lakes and sea coasts are available for this, care being taken that the right kind of fish are selected for the waters into which they are placed, observing latitude, climate, temperature and quality of water.

6. It may be carried on by stocking waters with young fry brought from hatching establishments, or by obtaining eggs for hatching, and both eggs and young fish may be transported safely to almost any distance.

7. The money capital required for these operations is small, skill, care, patience, perseverance and common sense, the same as in any other business, being the chief requisites.

8. Individual enterprise is alone sufficient for success, though State action is desirable; indeed, legislation is essential, if not to foster at least to protect those engaged in the business of fish culture.

THE FRUITS OF FISH CULTURE.

BY JOHN BURGESS.

Anglers who have profitably employed the art of fish culture in the development of sport are able to speak of the benefits enjoyed by them in consequence thereof. Having tasted, by experience, the fruits of the art, they know to what extent it is capable of benefitting the condition of waters. They know how the reproductive capacity of a single fish can be taken advantage of to the fullest extent when removed from its natural surroundings and from the host of enemies which destroy both offspring and parent. They also know that, by the aid of the art, waters that have never been tenanted with fish can be rendered populous with them, and that local races can be physically improved and made gamesome. It is not surprising, therefore, that anglers should combine, as they do on a small scale, in order to adopt fish cultural methods to the waters in which they have the right of plying their rods, and under the circumstances it is to be regretted that this is not done to a greater extent than it is at present, for, if the movement were general on the part of anglers, a marked improvement would be manifest in all quarters where they "most do congregate." The cost of maintaining and developing their stock of fish would, when shared by all, be infinitesimally small in comparison with the amount of pleasure derived from the fishing, while at the same time they would have the satisfaction of knowing that they were helping forward the cause of fish culture in a practical manner. Those who have set the example in regard to artificial propagation are, I am glad to say, being followed earnestly by not a few, and I believe great success has attended the operations of the majority who have carried them out systematically upon an extensive scale. To insure success large plants of fish must be made at a time. The size of the fish introduced must depend upon the conditions of the water and the nature of the forms, if any, inhabiting it. In some cases fry may be planted quite as successfully as matured fish, and, as the former cost much less than the latter, it is as well to stock waters with them when possible. But upon this subject advice should be gained previous to selecting the fish, whose species, variety and size must depend upon focal circumstances. It is not easy to lay down any rules for stocking, as one piece of water differs so much from another that they would not always apply, while the treatment desirable in respect of enclosed waters would be valueless and contrary to the interests of open waters. While I am opposed to the deposition of coarse fish, such as carp, tench, etc., in superior waters where trout could be made to abound, I am equally averse to turning trout into inferior waters whose stagnant condition renders them suited only to lower types of fish. The result of following such a course is failure and disappointment, which must always accompany such