The Development of Hatcheries 3 



ever, this type of "farming" has not been profitable in North America 

 until very recently - " because of an early and extensive development of 

 the commercial fishing of wild fresh-water and marine populations which 

 provided a more than adequate amount to supply domestic demands. For 

 example, the commercial yield of fresh-water fishes from the Illinois Ri ver 

 ( I llinois ) alone was 24 million pounds in 1908; '^^ the catch was composed 

 mostly of carp, buflFalo fish, and catfish and was largely shipped by rail to 

 eastern markets. In fact, it is interesting to note that special strains of 

 carp imported to this country from Europe in the 1880's soon reverted 

 to tlie original wild type. However, in the period since 1908, the fisheries 

 of the Great Lakes and coastal marine waters have largely supplanted 

 those of inland rivers and smaller lakes, so that now the commercial 

 operations in inland rivers are much reduced, except those for catfish 

 which always have a ready market. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF HATCHERIES 



A normal outgrowth of European fish-culture practices brought to this 

 country by immigrants was the development in the U.S. of hatcheries to 

 supplant tlie natural production of young wild fish. The earliest hatcheries 

 were privately operated, usually for the production of trout. Dr. Theo- 

 datus Garlick, the Rev. Dr. John Bachman, and Seth Green were all 

 operating private hatcheries prior to 1865."^ In 1872, at the urging of the 

 American Fish-Culturists' Association, the Congress of the United States 

 enlarged the duties of the newly formed Fish Commission to include the 

 propagation of fish.* In 1875 both federal and state governments were 

 operating hatcheries for the artificial production of fish. The late nine- 

 teenth and the early years of the twentieth centuries were marked by 

 attempts at hatchery production and stocking of the kinds of fish useful 

 for sport and food in the more important waters. However, many of 

 these attempted introductions resulted in failure for tlie following reasons: 

 a lack of understanding of physical and biological limitations, the release 

 of the fish into habitats unsuitable for them, and their inability to survive 

 predation and/or to compete with other organisms already present in the 

 waters. These failures were due largely to tlie fact that at that time the 

 science of fish ecology was practically unknown, while the art and science 

 of fish culture was well advanced. 



This was the heyday of the men engaged in the artificial propagation 

 of fish. States vied with one another in the race to put out larger and 

 larger numbers. "Paper fish" flourished in the reports of hatchery super- 

 intendents: numbers were important; little else mattered. 



Moreover, in the late nineteenth century only a few trained professional 



* U.S. Comm. of Fish Kept. 1872-73 (1874). 



