VIII REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE 
PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES 
The fish-cultural operations of the bureau present a picture of 
yearly production being increased to meet a constantly growing de- 
mand. The increase in the number of applications received has been 
greater than the increase in facilities for production. 
During the past year no new hatcheries have been put in operation, 
so that the larger output has been brought about by redoubling efforts 
to utilize present facilities to their utmost capacity. The general 
conviction that fish 3 or 4 inches long or larger are essential for the 
successful repopulation of our waters has resulted in an intensive 
effort to produce more fish of this class. The output of commercial 
food fishes has been increased materially, particularly on the Atlantic 
coast. 
COOPERATIVE FISH-CULTURAL WORK 
The older conception of the division of fish culture as an agency for 
delivering so many fish upon order, as if this were a manufactured 
product the ultimate disposition of which was of little interest to 
the manufacturer, is disappearing. The real task is to restock the 
waters, and cooperative efforts are doing much to accomplish this. 
The outstanding work along this line has been the cooperation with 
the sportsmen’s clubs, which have received fry for rearing to finger- 
ling size. Fifty-five of these nurseries are in operation, the majority 
in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Many more are awaiting completion 
of arrangements or are under consideration. In many cases the clubs 
are holding the fish received in the spring of 1926 for liberation this 
autumn at an age of 18 months. A new project has been undertaken 
this year, which exceeds in magnitude the leading nursery projects of 
last year. The Utica chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America 
has taken over a discontinued commercial hatchery at Barneveld, 
N. Y., which the bureau is operating. ‘An initial stock of over 200,000 
young fish has been supplied, and the project will be conducted so as 
to produce eggs from a brood stock of adult fish. 
The bureau also has furnished advice to individuals and clubs 
desirous of raising fish individually. Further cooperation has been 
effected by the utilization of privately owned or controlled waters 
as ege-collecting stations. The bureau’s employees take eggs from 
bodies of water in which a stock of fish has become established, the 
owner receiving a sufficient quantity to maintain the stock. A num- 
ber of lakes in Colorado have yielded a fair quantity of rainbow 
and brook trout eggs under such arrangements. 
An output of 6,481,073,000 fish and eggs represents the greatest 
production in any year since the bureau began its fish-cultural activi- 
ties. Increased collections of four marine species—cod, haddock, 
pollock, and winter flounder—are largely responsible for the increase 
of over 1,000,000,000 more than the figures of last year. Large yields 
were obtained in some of the other classes, including an appreciable 
increase in the output of game species. The failure to equal the 
records of past years in the production of fingerlings is due to a 
shortage in one of the important groups—the Pacific salmons—and 
to limited collections from the Mississippi River. Inasmuch as all 
fish from the latter source are of fingerling size, limited collections 
make themselves evident in this class. 
