04 



Woods. The Lake Michig-an fisheries have been in a 

 large measure ruined, and fishing in many locahties on 

 that Lake has ceased to be an industry to be followed 

 with profit. Huron and Superior have suffered ser- 

 iously from the same causes, and unless prompt and 

 efficient steps are soon taken by the Legislatures of 

 the Lake States these lakes, with the rest, will be 

 robbed of the white fish, salmon trout and herring. 

 Then will gradually follow the extermination of the 

 coarser varieties of fish, and when the last remaining 

 school of fish shall be sighted by some greedy fisher- 

 man who is '^ folloioiiig Jiis business' every netter on the 

 Lakes will join in the purs^iit of the last schools and 

 when they are finally captured they will be found too 

 small even to grade as No. 3s, Chicago inspection, and 

 they will be strewn on the shore to "lard the lean earth" 

 as fertilizer, as many of their kinds have done hereto- 

 fore. From then on the Lakes will serve only as 

 great highways on which to fioat the product of the 

 prairies of the further west; they will be barren of 

 the wealth of food the)' once possessed, and the Leg- 

 islator may then, unless too busily engaged in gerry- 

 mandering Legislative and Congressional " deestricts," 

 turn his attention to such passing affairs of interest as 

 the devising of ways and means by which the fisheries 

 of the Lakes may be restored to a productive con- 

 dition. 



A more selfish or senseless prosecution of an indus- 

 try has never been w^itnessed in any age or country. 

 With the exception of here and there an individual, 

 the fishermen, never extended the hand of co-operation 

 to the State in its attempts to restock the waters. We 

 are met on every hand and at every step by their selfish 

 greed. If we try to secure the ova of fish for artifi- 

 cial propagation the State must pay for handling the 

 fish and the weight of the ova, and pay well. When 

 the fish are to be planted they must be taken to the 



