FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 1 35 



3ag-g^estions and Recommendations. 



During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1896, this Commission has hatched 

 and planted in public waters in the State 191,726,678 fish of various kind, all the eggs 

 having been taken from stock fish at the hatching station ponds, or secured from wild 

 waters in the State. The fish were hatched and distributed at a total cost of 19.6 

 cents per thousand. The cost per thousand in previous years has been as follows : 

 1894, 30 cents ; 1893, 48 cents ; 1892, $1.11. 



One of the most important items in the cost of hatching and distributing fish is 

 the rearing of fingerlings (eight months old) and older fish. 



Within the year we have reared and planted 130,400 trout of eight and ten months 

 of age and 14,585 trout from twelve to eighteen months of age, or a total of 144,985 

 trout of or above the age of what are commonly called fingerlings. Previous to the 

 date of the organization of this Commission, the printed reports of the fisheries work 

 in the State made scarcely anj- mention of the rearing of fingerling fish, as practically 

 all the fish hatched were planted in the fry stage as soon as they were hatched, and 

 before they required to be fed. In addition to the fish hatched and distributed 

 from the State hatcheries, the United States Fish Commission contributed to the State 

 27,417.533 fish and eggs, the eggs being hatched at the State hatcheries, making a 

 grand total of 219,144,211 fish of all kinds planted in State waters during the year. 



In our last report, for a part of the year 1895, we recommended that an appro- 

 priation of $25,000 be made to establish a hatching station or stations on one or more 

 of the interior lakes for the purpose of hatching what are termed the commercial 

 fishes, the site or sites of such hatching station or stations to be selected by the Com- 

 missioners. That this was a wise and necessary recommendation we have ample 

 evidence from the demands made upon us by the interior lake region, and the western 

 part of the State, for increased facilities to largely augment the output of food fishes, 

 so called. In 1895 the output of commercial fishes from the State hatching stations 

 combined with contributions from the United States Fish Commission amounted to 

 187,619,932, and this year the output of the same class of fishes from the State 

 hatcheries alone amounted to 187,198,700. 



In other words, the increase in the output of commercial fishes from the State 

 hatcheries for 1896 was more than 34,000,000 over that of 1895 For the first time a 

 systematic attempt has been made to cultivate the Labrador whitefish, one of the most 

 delicious of the white fishes, and 250,000 eggs were taken at a temporary station at 

 Canandaigua Lake and hatched at Caledonia. 



Since the close of the fiscal year, further operations have been conducted at Can- 

 andaigua Lake on a greater scale, and 13,160,000 whitefish were hatched at Caledonia 



