690 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
increased steadily for the past ten or fifteen years. The proportion of eggs which the 
Bureau is able to collect to-day, as compared with that of ten or fifteen years ago, is 
several hundred per cent greater. The observations of Captain Lambson as to the 
natural fertilization of the salmon show that about 75 per cent are fertilized under 
natural conditions; but further observations show that of the 75 per cent which are 
naturally fertilized fully 95 per cent are smothered in the sand, so that eventually only 
a few hatch. Under artificial conditions we fertilize from 90 to 95 per cent; we hatch 
and develop as fry from 90 to 95 per cent of eggs fertilized. The fishery there is 
dependent entirely on artificial propagation, and during the last ten or fifteen years has 
steadily increased. 
In the shad fishery, which Doctor Bean has alluded to, take, for instance, the Poto- 
mac River: After the Fish Commission began its work of artificial propagation the 
commercial fishery came up steadily until the figures for a great many years were per- 
fectly wonderful. We can not show that tremendous fishery to-day, for the reason that 
the fish are not allowed to ascend the river where we can get their eggs. All our 
work in the propagation of shad must be done during the spawning season, and the col- 
lection of eggs is dependent on the run of shad during that season. They can not be 
caught .at other seasons of the year because they are not there. 
I think that both the salmon and shad are an illustration of the whitefish question, 
to show that the open season is desirable, if we can have along with it all the necessary 
hatcheries and spawntakers to conserve the eggs which would otherwise go to waste. 
[Applause. | ; 
Mr. W. E. MEEHAN. Mr. President and gentlemen, I did not intend to take part 
in this discussion, for the reason that it occurred to me that the papers read this morn- 
ing cover the question so completely and are so fully in accord with the experiences 
I have had in the fisheries of Lake Erie and the Delaware River in the case of shad, 
whitefish, herring, and other fishes that are caught in the commercial nets for mar- 
ket purposes. It seems to me that the maintenance of fish by artificial propagation 
is necessary—that the latter is necessary to maintain fisheries. The plea that, although 
we may believe a closed season for non-nest-building fishes is not needed because fish 
hatcheries can better keep up the supply of fish than natural propagation, we ought 
not publicly to say so for fear some harm will be done to some other country which 
does not propagate is, to my mind, much like the warning which the man gave another 
not to teach his children to read for fear they would later on come to read pernicious 
literature. 
All experiments made have shown that artificial propagation is necessary for the 
maintenance of fish in the water; that with increased population and increased demand 
it is impossible to maintain a supply by natural propagation. Artificial propagation 
has increased the supply of whitefish in Lake Erie and probably in the other lakes; 
it has increased the herring; it has increased the shad in the rivers. Without artificial 
means we would have no shad to-day. Artificial propagation has made the whitefish 
industry once more profitable. The best policy, in my estimation, is that which is out- 
lined by Messrs. Downing, Clark, and Reighard, to give the freest possible fishing for 
whitefish, herring, and the like during the summer months when the water is warm, 
when the fish are soft, and when the runs of fish are apt to be small and immature as 
to size. Catch the large fish and give the small fish a chance to grow. If closed seasons 
were made during the spawning period, there is scarcely a fish-cultural station on the 
Great Lakes that would be filled, unless the government and the states had about 
every boat employed in fishing. In the state of Pennsylvania, for the hatcheries set 
apart particularly for the propagation of the lake fishes, it will require every boat going 
out of the port of Erie to fill those hatcheries, and it is doubtful even then if the houses 
would be full. The more fish that are hatched, the greater must be the percentage of 
increase in suitable waters. 
