48 



ideas which have spread abroad and borne frnit .all over 

 this land, and the one across the sea, and to every one of 

 them the members point with becoming pride. I do not 

 mean that resolutions have been offered and passed to 

 carry into effect any certain plan for the benefit of fish cul- 

 ture or fish propagation^ but the good has emanated from 

 the papers read before the Society, and the discussions 

 which followed them, just as certainly as though it came 

 from formal resolution attested by president and secre- 

 tary. 



It seems to have been an unwritten law that this Society 

 should take no part in framing laws for the protection of 

 fish in any State or Territory, and no member, as such, has 

 ever been seen in the lobby or before a legislative com- 

 mittee seeking to influence legislation of any kind. The 

 Society has come to be a power and an authority by its own 

 right. In the article numbered "one," reciting the name 

 and objects of the Society, as amended, we read : 



" Its objects shall be to promote the cause of fish culture ; 

 to gather and diffuse information bearing upon its practical 

 success ; the interchange of friendly feeling and inter- 

 course among the members of the Society ; the uniting and 

 encouraging of the individual interests of fish culturists, 

 and> the treatmeut of all questions regarding fish of a 

 scientific and economic nature. '''' 



!N^ow, the question arises in my mind, admirable as the 

 work of the Society has been, has it done its whole duty 

 in the "treatment of all questions regarding fish of a scien- 

 tific and economic nature. " I do not now propose that the 

 Society sliall resolve that any particular legislation is best, 

 nor that any member, as such, shall appear as an advocate 

 before any fish-law committee of a State legislature, but 

 there is a way to make the power of this Society felt in 

 every State, in the direction of proper laws for the protec- 

 tion of our fishes. 



The members of this Society gather here, or at the ap- 



