386 Inland Water Culture 



The day is coming — is already at hand — ^when he 

 who wants fishes fresh from the water will have to 

 raise them. Public waters are "fished-out." In spite 

 of closed seasons, and frequent plantings of hatchery- 

 reared fry, they continue to be ''fished-out." With the 

 gro\\i:h of our population they are going to be always 

 ' 'iished-out ;" and there is no hope for the future of any 

 fishing that shall be worth while except in waters that 

 are privately controlled. 



This does not mean that there will be no fishing in 

 the future. It only means that fish raising is going 

 the way wild pig raising has gone. 



When game began to fail — venison, wild turkeys, etc., 

 the pioneer began to raise pigs. At first he gave them 

 little attention, except at killing time, and furnished 

 them no food. He raised them about as we raise 

 fishes now. He turned them loose in the woods to 

 forage for themselves as we now plant fish fry in the 

 streams. They ranged the whole area where their 

 food grew. 



Nowadays, thousands of hogs are raised where one 

 was raised then, but they do not run the range; they 

 are kept in small lots, and the broad areas are devoted 

 to raising forage for them. The present day method 

 of obtaining our meat supply is very unromantic as 

 compared with chasing a razorback hog with a shot- 

 gun through the woods at the end of the acorn season, 

 but it is the inevitable way of progress in animal hus- 

 bandry. 



Raising animals and their forage together is not good 

 husbandry. It is exceedingly wasteful and unproduc- 

 tive; yet that is the way we still raise fish in America. 

 We ought to be doing better than this. It is idle to 

 plant more fish in the water until we can supply more 

 stuff for them to eat. And we cannot expect more 

 forage to grow unless we provide suitable conditions. 



