102 Twoity-sixtli Animal Meeting 



to do what they know they ought to have been do*ng- for the 

 last twenty years. 



Mr. Nevin: I wiU say for the last eight years we have had 

 laws in relation to the fishermen impregnating the eggs and 

 planting them back on the spawning beds. In the last eight 

 years we have hired men and used on an average three or four 

 hundred dollars a year to put men on tugs to plant them back 

 on the spawning grounds, and we send them blanks for them to 

 fill up and we keep accurate tlata. The third year after we 

 planted these eggs the fishing showed great results, especially 

 with small trout on these beds, and those fishermen are the 

 greatest friends we have got. 



Mr. Dickerson: Have you a close season law in your state? 



Mr. Nevin: I don't beleive in a close season. We can 

 accomplish more without, by having the men strip the eggs and 

 plant them back on the spawning grounds. 



Mr. Dickerson: Do you find it necessary to train men to do 

 that? V\''ere not tliese fishermen sufliciciillv versed in the trick 

 of stripping the fish ti) do tliat? 



Mr. Nevin: Oh, they can do that, certainly, but they don't 

 do it unless they are compelled to. 



Mr. Dickerson: What I speak of is the necessity of passing 

 a law compelling them to the very thing they ought to do to pro- 

 tect their own business. 



Mr. Nevin: We have the law now. 



Mr. Bower: A little while ago while I was reading my paper, 

 Mr. Nevin made the statement in reply to my statement that 1 

 did not think more than one in every five hundred to a thousand 

 eggs were impregnated naturally that I had got it too high; it 

 was not one in a million. Now. if that is so, what is the use of 

 putting them back ; why not take them and hatch where they are 

 protected? Then again, you have not got to depend upon the 

 certificates of your fishermen. What do you want to put them 

 back and let them be lost for? 



Mr. Nevin: Thev would not l)e impregnated naturally. 



Mr. l)Ower: There is a considerable percentage of impreg- 

 nation naturally. 



Mr. Nevin: There is very li ttle among whitefish. In fact, 

 if there was, our lakes would not hold all the fish. We took this 



