598 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
The Valley City (N. Dak.) hatchery, which is under construction, 
was sufficiently complete to stock five species of warm-water fishes 
in the brood ponds. Due to adverse conditions, the production of 
Jargemouth bass fry was light. Bream and crappie were still spawning 
at the close of the fiscal year. Pike, pickerel, and pikeperch fry were 
secured from the State of North Dakota and placed in rearing ponds 
for fall distribution. The construction work is practically complete. 
A holding house 30 by 30 feet, a pump house 10 by 14 feet, and 9 pond- 
outlet kettles and gates were completed during the year in addition 
to grading, riprapping, and seeding dikes. 
Owing to a shortage of water in the early fall of 1939, the Orange- 
burg (S. C.) hatchery lost many of its breeders and a large number of 
young fish. Consequently, the production for the fiscal + year of 1940 
was approximately 21 percent less than for 1939, although it was above 
the yearly average. The total ouptut was 792,090 fish, which is a 
production of 29, 067 per acre. Shad were not handled at the Jackson- 
boro (S. C.) shad hatchery this year because the eggs were not obtain- 
able on a salvage basis. 
The number of fish produced this year at the Hoffman (N. C.) sta- 
tion was only 60 percent of last year’s production, due largely to the 
fact that this station has adopted the policy of distributing larger fish. 
This station has 23 one-acre ponds completed and four under con- 
struction. Two of the new ponds are complete except for the outlet 
boxes and the other two are approximately 80 percent excavated. 
Facilities for drainage of grounds and ponds were improved, and minor 
repairs were made to the buildings. The barn was razed and the lum- 
ber stored for future use. Pine straw was used to cover the bottoms 
of two nursery ponds to a depth of a few inches, wheat straw was 
used on another, and a fourth was covered with broomsedge sod. The 
ponds thus tr eated produced more fish of a uniform size than those 
that were fertilized with cottonseed meal alone. 
UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER WILDLIFE AND FISH REFUGE 
Owing to completion of the system of flood-control dams along the 
Mississippi River, and the 9-foot navigation channel, fish-rescue work 
has been reduced to a small fraction of its former importance. There 
is a continuing need for rescue work, however, as management of the 
storage pools causes certain areas to be flooded, and pools remain 
which will trap some fish. Only 4,333,535 fish were rescued this year. 
All species indigenous to the Mississippi River were represented in 
these collections, but catfish comprised one-third of the total. Rescue 
work was carried on at Marquette, Guttenberg, Bellevue, and Fairport, 
Iowa. No rescue work was done by the Genoa (Wis.) station or the 
Homer (Minn.) unit. 
Three large ponds were in production at the Guttenberg station, 
which produced a total of 1,260,170 fingerling and adult fish. More 
than 1 million of these were catfish. In addition to the pondfishes, 
buffalofish and northern pike were incubated in the hatchery. High 
water delayed the construction work on some of the ponds at Gutten- 
berg. However, three ponds were partially completed and can be 
placed in production in the near future. 
The La Crosse (Wis.) station is the headquarters for all the upper 
Mississippi River fisheries and rescue work. In addition to these 
activities, trout and pondfishes are propagated and many cooperative 
