The First Food of t lie Common White -Fkh. 97 



more forcibly to the wliite-tish tliaii to any other species in the 

 lakes; because this is for several reasons the most important purely 

 fresh-water fish of the i^reat lake rcirion, and proves to have a dis- 

 tinctly diiferent food when younir from that upon wiiich it is de- 

 pendent later. 



According to the recent census report,* more than twenty- 

 one million pounds of white-fish were taken in the Great Lakes 

 in 1879, valued at over three-quarters of a million of dollars, and 

 representing nearly half the total sum derived from tlu^ lake fish- 

 eries of all kinds. These fisheries emphiy over five tliousaud men, 

 and a fixed capital of one million three hundred and fory-six thou- 

 sand dollars. When we reflect that this enormous drain upon the 

 number of the species is necessarily, to a considerable extent, an 

 addition to the natural tax levied upon it by its enemies oth(;r than 

 man, we see that there must be an artificial supply provided, or 

 the fisheries will gradually fail. 



The importance of the knowledge of the food of so valuable a 

 species needs no demonstration, especially when we consider that, 

 consistently with what has been said above, it may not be diffi- 

 cult to overdo the work of propagation. 



If the white-fish were to be multiplied indefinitely, without any 

 attention to the character or abvnidance of its food supply, it 

 would soon reach such a number that it must infringe upon its 

 own food capital, diminish the average number of the animals 

 upon which it depends for subsistence, and so finally indirectly 

 cripple itself. Then the money and labor expended in its culture 

 would be principally lost, and the last state of tlie species would 

 be worse than the first. An acquaintance with the food of the 

 young is especially necessary, because they are planted by the 

 fish-culturist when, having already absorbed the egg-sac (tlie sup- 

 ply of food by which they are under natural conditions supported 

 until they have time to scatter themselves widely through the 

 water), they are in a peculiarly helpless condition, unable to wan- 

 der far in search of subsistence, and compelled to find food 

 speedily or perish. One would say, therefore, that their alimen- 

 tary resources and habits should be well and thoroughly known, 

 that the range, period and abundance of the organisms vipon 



^Census Bulletin No. 261, Sept. 1, 1881. 



