!38 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



power of each applicant for fish to conform to the requirements of the apphcation 

 blanks and ascertain the temperature of the water which it is desired to plant and the 

 kinds of fish food which the water contains. Once the water conditions are ascer- 

 tained with reasonable accuracy, a record is kept of that particular pond or stream for 

 future reference, but it is rare for a blank to be filled out understandingly in this 

 respect, and, therefore, the replies to the questions are too often valueless for the 

 purposes for which they were intended. Every year the applications call for more fish 

 than the State can raise, and indi\-idual applicants ask for more fish than the water to 

 be planted can by any possibility sustain. 



Section loi of the Game Law gives power to this Commission or its agents to net 

 predaceous fish that are preying on food fishes or their food. Where this has been 

 done, in a few instances, fault has been found with the Commission by those who do 

 not understand the necessity for such work. 



Small fishes of some species multiply so rapidly that they must be reduced in 

 numbers, because they feed on the food of other and better fishes. The fishes so 

 destroyed are not in themselves food fishes, nor do they serve as the best food for food 

 fishes, but act chiefly as fishfood destroyers and, in some cases, as spawn eaters. 



Whenever trout are netted in public waters for the purpose of propagating the 

 young of the species, a large proportion of the eggs are returned to the water in the 

 shape of fry or older fish. At one of the hatching stations the people have an idea 

 that all the eggs should be returned to the water as fry and none used for stocking 

 other waters. This is out of the question, for the State has a vast area of water to 

 stock with comparatively few waters to draw upon for stock fish, but in every instance 

 where the State has netted fish for their eggs the water so netted has received greater 

 benefit than if the fish had been left to spawn naturally, for at least fifty per cent, of 

 the eggs have been returned as fry or yearlings, while by natural methods not above 

 five per cent, would arrive at the fry stage, and even this is, probably, a big estimate. 



Within the next year it is expected that the hatching stations will have in their 

 stock ponds a sufiicient number of breeding fish without resorting to netting public 

 waters. 



By artificial methods over ninety per cent, of the eggs of the salmon family are 

 hatched, and owners of private lakes who understand the matter are quite willing to 

 have their preserves netted for trout eggs if the State will return twenty per cent, and 

 sixteen and two-thirds per cent, respectively to their ponds antl keep the balance for 

 public waters. 



The policy of the Commission in planting fingerlings and older fish so far as their 

 means and facilities will permit, is already bearing fruit, as shown by the operations 

 during the past year and by letters received from the people. By a system of 



