82 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
the fiscal year 1921 were widely disseminated, the distribution reach- 
ing practically every State in the Union and the Territories of Alaska 
and Hawaii. Consignments of fish eggs were also shipped to the Gov- 
ernments of Canada, France, and Switzerland, and an allotment of 
fish was forwarded to an applicant in Mexico. 
Fully 93 per cent of the output is represented by important com- 
mercial species—the salmons, shad, whitefish, pike perch, yellow 
perch, lake trout, cod, pollock, haddock, flounder, buffalofish, and 
carp. All of such fishes are planted on or adjacent to the spawning 
areas where the eggs originate, or the eggs are consigned to State 
commissions for incubation and distribution in nonproductive waters 
where conditions appear to favor the development of new fisheries. 
(See p. 87.) Included under the head of the commercial fishes are 
the large numbers of food fish annually salvaged from the overflowed 
territory along the Mississippi River and at other points (see pp. 7 
and 78), a branch of the work that has become one of the most popu- 
lar, practical, and beneficial of the bureau’s activities. 
Among the more important species propagated for the stocking of 
interior waters are the brook, rainbow, and blackspotted trouts, the 
largemouth and smallmouth black basses, rock bass, sunfish, crappies, 
and catfish. While the numbers of such fishes are by comparison 
small, representing only 7 per cent of the aggregate output, the im- 
portance of this work is not to be underestimated. It is this branch 
of its work which brings the bureau in close contact with the general 
public, as is evidenced by the large number of applications received 
each year, and the interest thus aroused in the fisheries can not be 
other than beneficial. The economic value of the work is large. 
In most instances the reports received from applicants regarding the 
results obtained from planting fish furnished by the bureau are of a 
highly satisfactory nature. ees p. 88.) 
SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION TO ALL APPLICANTS. 
The following table shows in summarized form how many and what 
species of fish and fish eggs out of the net product of the hatcheries 
and rescue stations for the fiscal year 1921 were delivered to all appli- 
cants, both in the United States and Territories and in foreign coun- 
tries. Only a small percentage of the immense numbers of fish res- 
cued from overflowed lands was delivered to applicants, the great 
bulk having been returned to the original waters, as is shown in the 
table on page 7. 
