PREFACE 



Tiie quotations on the opposite page express concisely me 

 relation of fish to the administration of non-agricultural, forest 

 lands and waters, as expressed by representative foresters. 

 Dean Baker has clearly expressed the policy of this College 

 toward these problems. 



The present publication by Frank Collins Baker,* Zoological 

 Investigator of the College of Forestry, is his second contri- 

 bution toward our knowledge of the condition of fish life in 

 Oneida Lake. It is devoted to a study of the amount of fish 

 food produced in Lower South Bay of Oneida Lake. This is 

 the first important quantitative study of fish food of the bottom 

 ever made in America, and one of the two known to have been 

 made in the fresh waters of the world. The kind and amount 

 of food in our forest waters is now generally recognized to be 

 one of the main factors influencing fish abundance and this 

 study was made to increase our knowledge of the subject. 

 Briefly stated, Mr. Baker's investigation shows that there is 

 an abundant and va-'.ied population of invertebrate animals 

 living upon the bc'iom of Lower South Bay, and of the kinds 

 eaten by fish in large amounts. This fish food varies both in 

 kind and amount with the character of the bottom materials, 

 whether boulder, sand, mud, etc. By an actual count of the 

 number of individual animals living upon limited sample areas, 

 sand was found to be the most densely populated by fish food, 

 and boulder bottom the least so. 



The character and amount of plants was found to have a 

 marked influence upon the kind and abundance of this fish 

 food. Furthermore, by these quantitative studies it was made 

 possible to calculate the relative abundance of the small herbi- 



* Since the completion of this investigation Mr. Baker has accepted 

 the position of Curator of the Natural Historj' Museum, University of 

 Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, where he goes with tlie best wishes of the 

 College. 



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