538 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



attention became entirely engrossed in the propagation of other fishes. 

 By his active interest in the art of fish-calture, and continual contribu- 

 tions to the press of Michigan, as well as a widely-circulated pamphlet* 

 ou the subject, he created a wide-spread interest in Michigan that has 

 been largely influential in bringing about the judicious and efficient 

 action ou the part of the State government for the multiplication of 

 food-fishes. 



In treating of the progress in trout-culture, only those culturists are 

 here referred.to who have made their experiences and discoveries avail- 

 able to all by publication, and only those publications have been men- 

 tioned that were written by those pratically engaged in the work of 

 trout-culture, and whose writings and teachings were derived from 

 original experience. 



The summary of advances made by the application of the art of fish- 

 culture to the brook-trout in the United States may be repeated as fol- 

 lows : (1.) The establishment and development of interest in the work. 

 (2.) A practical knowledge of the metho«ds employed in the art. (3.) 

 Diagnosis of the diseases and ills incident to the artificial propagation 

 of fishes and the suggestion as to prevention and remedies for some of 

 them. 



The s«i»io?i.-— Previous to the autumn of 1866 the efforts in fish-cul- 

 ture in America had been entirely in the direction of extending a 

 luxury, as the brook-trout is properly considered in this light, its qual- 

 ities, as before enumerated, adapting it rather to the appreciation and 

 enjoyment of the fortunate few, than constituting an extensive food 

 resource for the good of a large population. In this year, however, the 

 attention of the Canadian provinces and the New England States be- 

 came concentrated upon the salmon [Salmo salar) as there were the 

 most apparent evidences of its decrease and of its probable extermina- 

 tion at no distant time in the streams where it formerly abounded. 



At the period mentioned the propagation of the salmon was com- 

 menced in Canada on a thorough basis, a small building erected, and 

 arrangements made for hatching out the eggs. Mr. Samuel Wilmot, of 

 Newcastle, Canada, on Lake Ontario, undertook the direction of the work. 

 He obtained fifteen mature salmon, but was deprived of eleven of them 

 by the act of a band of marauders who feared that his presence on the 

 stream would prevent their killing the salmon, contrary to the laws re- 

 serving and ijrotecting them in the stream for spawning j)urposes. He 

 was able to obtain and impregnate about 15,000 ova, of which a large 

 proportion was hatched the following spring. 



The next year a somewhat larger number was obtained and hatched, 

 with moderate success, and some of the smolts from the i^receding year 

 found. 



* Pisciculture, or Fisli-Farming: an address before the legislature of Michigan on the 

 artificial propagation of fish and the restocking of public waters of the State, deliv- 

 ered at Lansing, February 28, 1871, by Hon. N. W. Clark, of Clarkston,Mich. Detroit) 



1871. 



