59 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE MORAL 

 PHASES OF nODERN FISHCULTURE. 



BY HERSCHEL WHITAKER. 



Mr. Whitaker, before reading his paper, made the 

 followino- remarks : 



o 



" Of course in a paper like this, it is impossible 

 to give you anything like an adequate conception of 

 the basis worked on in the Lake region. I do not 

 know how many, but a very great many pounds of 

 white fish measuring from eight to nine inches were 

 salted and sold as herring, or smoked and sold. If 

 these had not been molested, but were allowed to re- 

 main in the water three or four years, they would have 

 been of greater value. We have had since 1891 a 

 statistical agent every year, and his reports are very 

 reliable, and taken by the same man every year. His 

 report for 1892, which was the last year statistics were 

 collected, show that fully one-half of the fish taken 

 and marketed were number twos and under. You 

 know what that means. Two-thirds of the catch in 

 weio^ht of the fish taken in the waters of Michio-an 

 were all of that size. Now it is impossible unless some 

 ofeneral action should be taken, that the fisheries of 

 the Lake will last long. It is within my memory quite 

 a while ago, something like 35 years ago, I remember 

 distinctly in Lewis County in this State (New York), 

 where I was born, it was a common thino- for the far- 



