214 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



And so the history of our profession has had its birth and growth, and is of vital 

 interest to those who care for these matters. With this general introduction I turn 

 to briefly consider the history of whitefish culture from the beginning of the work to 

 the present, with methods, apparatus, etc. 



The first intimation we have of the artificial work with whitefish is found in a 

 paper by Mr. Milner, deputy U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, on " The History of 

 Fish Culture," in which he says : 



In November, 1857, Mr. Carl Miller, of New York, and Mr. Henry Brown, of New Haven, Conn., 

 visited Lake Ontario, and, taking males and females of whitefish alive from the nets of the fishermen, 

 impregnated a large number of eggs, estimated by them at 1,000,000. They were packed in alter- 

 nate layers with fine wet sand, presumably in a box, but not stated, and transported to Saltoustall 

 Lake, Conn., and there deposited upon sandy spots in the lake. The eggs had the appearance of being 

 in good condition when they arrived at their destination. In March and April following, the young 

 were said to have been seen in large numbers. Again, in 1858, 10,000,000 ova of trout and whitefish 

 were obtained and placed in the lake, and considerable numbers were believed to have been hatched. 



Mr. Milner notes that the numbers were probably overestimated in both cases. 



From the Maine commission report for 1870 we find that in November, 1868, they 

 laid down in the hatching troughs for experiment a number of whitefish eggs, and in 

 the following March and April a large number of young fry made their appearance. 

 The fry escaped to a stream below the hatchery, and later in the season whitefish of 

 4 to 5 inches in length were noticed and some shown at the Provincial Show at London 



The first successful series of tests were begun in 1868, by Seth Green and Samuel 

 Wilmot in applying artificial culture to this species, and in the succeeding year by 

 my father, Mr. N. W. Clark, with whom I was associated at that time. 



Mr. Milner further says: 



They were found to be very delicate and difficult to hatch in the first few years of experimenting, 

 but methods were perfected that made their production as certain and losses nearly as small as in 

 other species. 



From this it will be noticed that Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Green began their experi- 

 ments one year previous to my father and myself. I have not been able to obtain the 

 facts as to Messrs. Green and Wilmot's plan of handling the eggs, but it may be pre- 

 sumed that it was carried forward in a manner similar to our own. 



Commencing, then, with the fall of 1869, we find that Mr. Clark, through the 

 courtesy of Mr. Green, obtained 50,000 whitefish ova and placed them in gravel 

 hatching-boxes fed by spring water at the temperature of 47° F. It was found they 

 required much closer attention than trout ova and the constant removal of the dead 

 eggs was necessary to avoid the growth of fungus, the whole becoming one mass of 

 vegetable mold. However, 2,000 were hatched and through the wire mesh escaped 

 into a lake below the hatchery. 



Again, in 1870 a like number was obtained through the courtesy of Mr. George 

 Clark, of Ecorse, Mich., placed in the same troughs with the same temperature of 

 water. A much larger number were hatched, bursting the shell about January 15 to 

 January 20. By the use of finer-mesh wire the young fry were retained in the troughs. 

 Soon after the hatching Mr. J. W. Milner, deputy United States Commissioner, visited 

 the hatchery at Clarkston and took some one hundred of the fry with him to his home 

 at Waukegan, 111., to experiment, and, if possible, learn the food of the whitefish; 

 some-3,000 were retained in the troughs, but later they all died, only surviving four weeks. 



