202 BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The first board was singularly fortunate in securing as superintendent the enthu- 

 siastic and untiring- George H. Jerome, whose spicy and vigorous contributions to the 

 literature of the subject, contained in the early reports of the commissioners, have won 

 the admiration of each succeeding board and of every appreciative reader. The salary 

 of the superintendent was limited by the act to $1,200, but the meagerness of the com- 

 pensation did not hinder him from giving to the work all the energy and ability he 

 possessed. He was the life and spirit of the board so long as he retained his place. 



The following words from the first report of the commission are deemed worthy of 



quotation : 



The water world, subjected year by year to new discovery and to a larger development, may be 

 implicitly relied upon in the years to come to contribute a much larger quota of food than at any pre- 

 existing period. This, as viewed from the fish-culturist's standpoint, is believed not to be merely 

 possible, but highly probable. Indeed this is the fish problem, nothing more, nothing less ; and to the 

 solution of this problem the veteran band of fish-culturists, with the appliances at hand and with a 

 will and courage equal to every conceivable emergency, have gone to work, resolved not to lay down 

 their tools till every promise of theirs is redeemed and every prophecy fulfilled. 



The appropriation for the first two years was $7,500 a year. With this fund the 

 commission established a State hatchery at Crystal Springs, Pokagou, Cass County, 

 on the Methodist camp meeting grounds, and built a hatchery 20 by GO feet, one story 

 high with a roomy attic, and a small residence for the overseer. The earlier efforts 

 of the commission were devoted somewhat to the propagation and planting of several 

 kinds of foreign fish, the Atlantic salmon, the landlocked salmon, the California salmon, 

 and the shad, and we are constrained to believe that much faith and enthusiasm, as 

 well as labor and money, were wasted in the effort to acclimate these foreigners to the 

 waters of Michigan. The whitefish, however, was never overlooked or neglected. 



The first plant of whitefish was in the spring of 1874, and it exceeded 1,500,000, 

 which was greater than the plant of all other kinds. These were hatched at the 

 hatchery of N. W. Clark, at Clarkston, Oakland County. 



In the spring of 1875 there were hatched at the State hatchery at Pokagou about 

 150,000 whitefish, and about 2,000,000 were bought of N. W. Clark & Son, of North ville, 

 at the price of $1 per 1,000. The plant was over 2,200,000. 



In the fall of 1876 a small whitefish hatchery, 20 by 50 feet, was built on a leased 

 lot near the waterworks on Atwater street in Detroit, and the experiment tried of 

 using the city water. Oren M. Chase was put in charge of this hatchery. The 

 hatching was done at first in the Holton hatching-box, for the use of which a royalty 

 of $100 a year was paid. 



In the spring of 1876 nearly 10,000,000 whitefish were hatched, and the plant in 

 Michigan was 9,310,000. The rather boastful mention of this then unparalleled hatch 

 in the second report of the commission is somewhat amusing in the light of what is 

 now being done in that line. 



In the organic act provision was made for cooperation with other States contiguous 

 to the waters of Michigan, which should make appropriations for the work and express 

 a desire for joint action, and in the report of 1876 mention is inade that several of the 

 States bordering upon the Great Lakes, notably Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, "have 

 got sharply to work upon the whitefish." 



The planting of salmon trout was began in 1875, when 150,000 fry were purchased 

 of X. W. Clark & Son, at the price of $2 per 1,000, and planted in the inland lakes of 

 the State. The work on the Atlantic, the California, and the landlocked salmon con- 



