PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES, 1926 377 

 Summary, by species, of distribution of fish, fiscal year 1926 — Continued 



METHOD OF DISTRIBUTION 



In connection with its work of supplying fish on the 12,000 to 

 15,000 applications received every year, the bureau aims to so appor- 

 tion the output of its hatcheries as to obtain the maximum re- 

 sults, giving special consideration to waters in which the fish 

 planted will have an opportunity to mature and reproduce. In 

 pursuance of this plan many difficulties are encountered, not the 

 least of them being the frequent insistence of an applicant to obtain 

 some favorite species of fish regardless of whether or not the w T aters 

 he desires to stock are suitable therefor. The bureau, of course, 

 refuses to furnish fish for waters to which they are not adapted, but 

 it is often difficult to convince an applicant of the wisdom of this 

 policy. 



Requests for fish of the warm-water species, especially the large- 

 mouth and smallmouth black bass, have increased to such an extent 

 within recent years that the present outlook for satisfying the de- 

 mand does not appear hopeful. In the past the bureau has relied 

 largely on the collecting fields along the Mississippi River for its 

 stock of largemouth black bass for supplying applicants residing 

 in States where no Federal bass hatcheries are operated, but within 

 recent years such collections in the rescue fields have been compara- 

 tively small, sometimes not exceeding 500,000 in a season. As a large 

 percentage of the bass collected must be returned to their native 

 waters for the maintenance of the supply, it can readily be under- 

 stood that this source is not dependable and that great necessity 

 exists for the establishment of additional sources of supply for black 

 bass, especially in the east and the midwest, if the demands for this 



