FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 1 39 



changing the stock fish and young fish from the water of one station to that of 

 another, and by crossing the fish of one station with the fish of another to obtain fresh 

 blood (of course of the same species), stronger and more vigorous as well as more 

 rapid-growing fish have been obtained. 



Judging from the reports which have come to us, there never has been such a 

 small percentage of loss in the transportation of young fish as during the past year. 



We would again most earnestly recommend the absolute necessity for a longer 

 close season for black bass if the fish is to be saved from practical e.xtermination in 

 State waters. The applications each year call for millions of bass, and the supply is 

 limited to a few thousands. Black bass spawn through the month of June, and the 

 present open season begins on May 30th. Not satisfied with catching black bass in 

 June when they are spawning or brooding their young, a comparatively new mode of 

 destruction is being practiced by fishermen. As cold weather approaches black bass 

 congregate on shoals in deep water where they partially hibernate during the winter 

 months, and there the fishermen resort and catch the fish, stupid from the low temper- 

 ature, in vast numbers. We would recommend that the close season begin on October 

 15th and extend to July ist following. We would also recommend that the law 

 which now applies to the waters of the St. Lawrence River be made to apply to all 

 other waters in the State, namely, that no black bass shall be taken under ten inches 

 in length and that not more than twelve black bass shall be taken or possessed by one 

 person in one day ; "r twenty-four bass by two persons fishing together. 



Black bass can not be propagated like trout and pike-perch ; and there is no 

 opportunity for getting stock fish except from waters which already show the effects 

 of over-fishing and which the Commission is now called upon to restock. It is only 

 bv protecting the black bass during their spawning season and by other restrictions 

 and having the law rigidly enforced that we can hope to preserve this fish from prac- 

 tical extermination. 



We deem it our duty to recommend a law to protect fish in State nets when taken 

 for spawning purposes. Fish so confined have been removed from the nets by other 

 than employes of the State. 



In our report submitted to the Legislature last year we had occasion to refer to 

 the heat and drouth in western New York which dried up the springs at the head of 

 Spring Creek (generally known as Caledonia Creek), on which the principal hatchery 

 of the State is situated, and which poisoned the water in the pond above the State 

 property and eventually killed the young fish in the hatchery and rearing boxes and 

 the stock fish in the ponds. 



At the time this seemed to the general public like a calamity to be deplored, but 

 we said of it: " Except for a temporary embarrassment at the hatchery, and perhaps 



