PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES, 192 8 393 



that section should be received prior to May 1 in order to assure 

 early delivery. Requests for bass, sunfish, and crappie should be on 

 file in the bureau prior to May 1, as deliveries of such species are 

 made between May and December. 



During the year the bureau's cars traveled 112,533 miles, of which 

 4,591 were free. Detached messengers traveled 298,065 paid and 

 87,420 free miles, a total of 498,018. 



NEW DISTRIBUTION" CAR 



Reference was made in last year's report to the need for two dis- 

 tribution cars to take the place of cars Nos. 3 and 4. During the 

 year the condition of car No. 4 became so bad that it was considered 

 unsafe to keep it in commission. The matter of repairing this car 

 was given careful consideration, and estimates were obtained from 

 the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroads relative to the cost 

 of placing the car in safe condition for traveling. The Pennsylvania 

 estimate was approximately $25,000. As the bureau did not feel 

 justified in spending such a large sum on a wooden car with a carry- 

 ing capacity only about 60 per cent as great as that of a new steel 

 car, car No. 4 was placed on a siding at Lakeland, Md., and is being 

 used as a home for the employees who operate the Lakeland Pond 

 station. 



An appropriation has been obtained from Congress for one new 

 steel car, and its construction will begin early in the fiscal year with 

 the view of having the car completed and ready for distribution 

 work during the spring months. "While the bureau needs two steel 

 cars, the one allowed by Congress will be a valuable aid for the time 

 being in the expeditious distribution of fish. However, in the inter- 

 est of safety the operation of wooden cars in first-class trains should 

 be discontinued as soon as possible. The remaining wooden car, No. 

 3, carries but 150 pails of fish, while a modern steel car will carry 

 from 250 to 300 pails. 



SHIPPING riSH BY AIBPLANE 



On May 10 a shipment of 15,000 brook trout and 12,000 rainbow 

 trout was made by airplane from Northville, Mich., to Dayton, Ohio. 

 The fish were planted in streams of Wright Field. Lieut. George D. 

 Tourtellot and R. E. Selff called at the bureau in the early spring 

 and arranged to receive a shipment of fish for stocking the trout 

 waters on the flying field at Dayton. A letter received from 

 Lieutenant Tourtellot under date of May 22 reads as follows : 



We received our trout last week and brought them by airplane from Michigan 

 to Dayton, Ohio, and deposited them in the streams at Wright Field. They 

 came through in fine shape, and there was not a dead fish in the 20 cans when 

 I landed here. 



There are many inland streams that can not be properly stocked 

 with fish due to lack of transportation facilities. In many sections 

 of the West the United States Forest Service uses pack horses to 

 transport fish from railroad stations to the headwaters of streams in 

 the mountains. It is possible that in the future the airplane will be 

 the means of taking more fish to streams than it will carr}' away. 



