24 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
OPERATIONS OF THE INLAND HATCHERIES. 
It is possible to record another successful year’s work at the 
numerous interior stations where trouts and basses are cultivated. 
These fishes bring the Bureau’s activities in practical touch with ve 
large numbers of farmers, anglers, and other individuals usually 
interested in the stocking of minor lakes, ponds, and streams. The 
recognition of the value of fish culture on the farm and of the possi- 
bility of maintaining a fish pond on practically every farm in the 
country is becoming more widespread as the Bureau’s efforts to this 
end are more generally made known. Many daily newspapers and 
several monthly home journals with very large circulation have abl 
seconded the Bureau’s propaganda, and as a result of all the publicity 
there has been a demand for thousands of copies of ‘‘Fish ponds on 
farms,’ a document prepared for the special purpose of giving prac- 
tical instructions for making and maintaining private fish ponds. 
Already many hundreds of people in all parts of the country have 
acted on the information thus acquired, have obtained supplies of 
suitable fishes from the Bureau, and have added pond culture to their 
agricultural pursuits. 
The aggregate output of pond fishes in 1916 was not equal to that 
in 1915, but with the increased production of certain species at certain 
stations and the larger average sizes of the fishes distributed the 
general results have been far more satisfactory than in any preceding 
ear. 
The only material falling off in the operations of the trout stations 
occurred in Yellowstone Park, where the important work addressed 
to the blackspotted trout was curtailed by peculiar physical condi- 
tions that affected spawning. In the summer of 1915 the water 
stages in Yellowstone Lake and tributary streams were from 2 to 3 
feet below normal, and while thousands of spawning fish made their 
appearance in the lake only a small proportion entered the streams 
in which traps for their capture had been installed. As a result the 
ege collections were less than half those of the preceding year. In 
the spring of 1916, at the time when the spawning of the blackspotted 
trout usually begins, floods and washouts were prevalent in the waters 
of the park, owing to the melting of the heavy masses of snow in the 
mountains, and, while the prospects indicated a successful collecting 
season later on, no eggs whatever had been taken up to the close of 
the fiscal year. 
The Madison Valley, in Montana, where Federal fish-cultural opera- 
tions were inaugurated several years ago, is proving a prolific field, 
now that the Bureau has the hearty cooperation of the Montana 
authorities in the enforcement of the State law prohibiting public 
fishing during the close season. Heretofore the Bureau has been 
compelled to submit to a large amount of illegal fishing in connection 
with its rainbow-trout operations in this field, the nuisance assuming 
such proportions in the spring of 1915 as to practically nullify its 
efforts with that species. Steps were, therefore, taken in advance 
of the recent spawning season to secure the aid of the State wardens, 
and under the efficient protection thus afforded wild rainbow-trout 
eggs in excess of 1,700,000 were taken. A notable collection of gray- 
ling eggs also was made in streams in Madison Valley, the season’s 
ageregate amounting to nearly 6,500,000. 
