89 



THE ARTIFICIAL HATCHING OF WHITE= 

 FISH AND BROOK TROUT, AND THE 

 RELATIONS OF PLANTING TO 

 RESULTS. 



BY SEYMOUR BoWER, SUPT. MICMTGAV FISH COMMISSION. 



Perhaps the history of fish cultural operations on a 

 scale of any magnitude affords no sharper contrast in 

 appreciable results than is shown in the planting- of 

 brook trout in the streams of Michigan, and the plant- 

 ing of white fish in the Great Lakes. We cannot of 

 course trace results as closely in one case as the other, 

 because it is impossible to determine what proportion 

 of the yield of white fish is due to artificial propagation, 

 and what proportion originates from the native stock, 

 while it IS positively known that practically all of the 

 brook trout in lower peninsula streams are primarily the 

 result of planting, 



But we are confronted with the fact, that from com- 

 paratively small annual plantings, over a thousand non- 

 indigenuous streams are to-day so well populated with 

 brook trout that the State of Michigan ranks second to 

 none in the value of her trout streams, while in the 

 face of annual plantings that run into the hundreds of 

 millions, the yield of white fish has steadily declined. 

 In one case, a supply that is constantly increasing has 



