672 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
but rather the corrective measures that must be enforced if our game fishes 
are not to suffer the fate of the passenger pigeon and the dodo. 
For various reasons, the bureau’s efforts in this direction are confined at 
present to the artificial propagation and rearing of the more desirable game 
fishes. While it is obvious that the scope of this work should be enlarged and 
broadened, owing to the limited time at my disposal I shall confine my remarks 
to the problems that are at present under investigation or are to be taken up 
in the near future. 
Necessarily, the program we have adopted has been dictated largely by 
expediency, and no one realizes more clearly than I that from the strictly 
scientific standpoint it has many serious defects. In outlining the work that 
we are attempting to carry on the primary purpose has been to render the 
greatest possible assistance to the fish-culturists in their efforts to increase the 
efficiency of the hatcheries, That there is urgent need of improvement in 
fish-cultural practices is obvious to anyone who is familiar with the work of 
the hatcheries. This statement is not intended as a criticism of present-day 
fish-cultural methods, but rather to emphasize the fact that, owing primarily 
to our ignorance regarding many of the factors involved, our hatcheries are 
not getting the results that can reasonably be expected of them. This fact has 
recently led Doctor Knight, of the Biological Board of Canada, to advocate the 
elimination of the hatcheries, although I have not as yet been able to obtain 
a clear idea of just what he proposes to substitute in their place. 
The work in trout culture, which we are now carrying on, is the direct out- 
growth of the work carried on several years ago on the diseases of the young 
fish. It did not take us long to decide that if we were to get anywhere regard- 
ing their control it would be necessary to consider many factors that relate 
to the diseases. Control measures must be from a prophylactic standpoint 
rather than therapeutic. As the food appeared to be one of the most immediate 
factors indirectly concerned in the outbreak of certain diseases, it was decided 
to study that phase of the problem. Feeding experiments were started in the 
summer of 1923 at the Manchester (Iowa) hatchery. The following year the 
experiments were continued at the White Sulphur Springs (W. Va.) hatchery. 
While we learned a great deal from our experiments, we found that if we 
were to get the best results it would be necessary to establish a station where 
we would have complete control of the fish and where the production of fish for 
planting was of secondary importance. We were able finally to establish a 
hatchery for this purpose at Holden, Vt. I suspect that Mr. Leach was willing, 
because it was a hatchery with a past; and a very shady past at that. There 
are advantages and disadvantages to this hatchery. In the past there has been 
a heavy mortality early in the spring and also during the summer. However, 
it also has some advantages. Anyone can raise fish where there are no troubles 
at all. We feel that it is a distinct advantage to have a hatchery all our own, 
so that we can continue our experiments indefinitely and where we will not 
be obliged to confine our work to young fish, as would be necessary if the work 
were taken up at a regular fishery station. 
Mr. James will tell you of the details of the feeding experiments later on. 
I might say that we have been trying the various kinds of food in use at hatch- 
eries. We have been determining the efficiency, relative value, ete., of these 
foods for trout of different species, and we have positive evidence that the 
same kind of food is not always equally good for all species of trout. Each 
species must be considered by itself. At the Holden station we have been able 
to carry on feeding experiments with all except the brown trout. I have 
recently received an inquiry from a leading fish-culturist regarding food for 
brown trout, but could not be of much assistance to him, as we have not been 
able to experiment with this species. Of course, this food problem can be 
earried on almost indefinitely, because there are large numbers of foods that 
are in common use, and each hatchery has its pet foods which it thinks are 
far superior to every other. For a single species of trout there are certain 
foods that are much better than others. One thing definitely certain is that 
no artificial foods (such as liver, heart, and foods of that type) are equal to 
the natural food. One line of experimentation that we are working with now 
is concerned with the possibility of producing some natural food that can be 
used to supplement the artificial foods on which these fish must depend for 
economic reasons. 
Turning from the feeding experiments, I might touch briefly upon the diseases 
in hatcheries. This is a problem that will always be very important. When 
you consider that it is absolutely necessary to crowd these fish together in 
