12 



of feedino- youno- fish, and as to whether it is profitable to 

 feed them until they are a year old or not, and I do not 

 think it is." 



Dr. Parker said : " This is an economic question. It 

 seems to me that we really do not know the absolute ex- 

 pense of keeping them until they are a year old. It becomes 

 more apparent to me that we really do not know mucli 

 about it now, and cannot tell whether i t is profitable or not 

 to rear them until they are a year old." 



Mr. Olaik said : " I will make it a point at our next 

 meeting, with the advice of Colonel McDonald, to bring a 

 short paper here, showing as near as I can possibly come 

 to it, the exact cost of rearing trout to a year old." 



The Chair: "This question is now being discussed by 

 difl^erent Fish Commissions as to whether we shall continue 

 distributing fry, or whether we shall adopt a system of 

 rearing the fish in ponds to a certain age, and then turning 

 them out ; but the true test will be rather in the results we 

 shall obtain hereafter, than in the question of expense. I 

 can see no great difficulty on the score of expense. The 

 New York Fish Commission is pursuing both plans. We 

 distribute millions of fry every year and a few thousand 

 yearlings. We do not encourage applications for year- 

 lings, but we are making a judicious distribution of them 

 In certain localities where we can keep track of them ; but, 

 as I said before, I think this whole question will settle 

 down finally as to which method will give us the best re- 

 sults in the stocking of streams. We do not doubt that 

 the distribution of fry has repaired the waste of open fish- 

 ing in New York streams. We know that streams from 

 which the fish had almost entirely disappeared have been 

 made prolific of trout by stocking them with fry. So far 

 as that goes it is a success, but whether we could have 

 achieved greater results by rearing them to a greater age 

 is a question we have not yet determined. An applicant 

 will ask our Commission for a million fry with which to 



