THE DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND FISH EGGS DURING 
THE FISCAL YEAR 1918. 
CHARACTER OF WORK. 
Fully nine-tenths of the fish-cultural resources of the Bureau of 
Fisheries are devoted to the restoration and maintenance of the com- 
mercial fisheries of the United States. The eggs of such important 
commercial species as the salmons, shad, cod, whitefish, lake trout, 
pike perch, pollock, and flatfish would be sent to market in the fish 
and thus lost were they not taken by the Bureau from fish caught by 
commercial fishermen, and the fry developed therefrom in specially 
equipped hatcheries. 
While it constitutes a comparatively small part of the Bureau’s 
output, the upbuilding and extension of the fisheries of inland waters 
is by no means a negligible factor, comprising as it does the produc- 
tion and dissemination of valuable fresh-water fishes of many kinds 
for introduction into public lakes, streams, and ponds, and also for 
the stocking of preserves under private control. One of the leading 
features of this branch of the work is the furnishing of suitable 
stock fish for the establishment of a supply in the waters of regions 
far remote from the markets, where dependence for food fishes must 
be placed entirely on local resources. 
Among the fishes most extensively cultivated for the fresh-water 
streams and lakes of the interior are several species of trout, the 
black basses, crappies, bream, and catfishes. Trout are artificially 
hatched from eggs which are taken from both wild and domesticated 
stock, while the supply of black bass and other pond fishes of the 
same general character is secured by allowing the mature fish to 
breed naturally in specially prepared ponds. Owing to the great 
demand for fishes suitable for culture in ponds, the Bureau is com- 
pelled to supplement its station supplies by making collections of 
young fishes which become stranded each season on the overflowed 
lands adjacent to the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Less than 1 
per cent of the fishes thus obtained are reserved for distribution in 
distant waters, while the remainder are either returned to the main 
channels of these rivers or placed in their immediate tributaries. 
Prevailing weather conditions have a great deal to do with the 
measure of success attained in the Bureau’s annual rescue operations 
in the Mississippi Valley. Sometimes it is impossible to secure 
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