[19] THE STATUS OF THE FISH COMMISSION. 1157 



9. WHAT THE COMMISSION HAS DONE IN ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION. 



It has been stated that no legislative action has ever been recom- 

 mended by the Commissioner of Fisheries. The statutes of the various 

 States contain numerous laws for the protection of fish and fishermen, 

 generally worse than useless, though there are many definitions of close 

 time which appear to be beneficial. To enforce these laws would, how- 

 ever, render necessary a large force of fish wardens. 



The policy of the United States Commissioner has been to carry out 

 the idea that it is better to expend a small amount of public money in maMng 

 fish so abundaiit that they can he caught without restriction, and serve as 

 cheap food for the people at large, rather than to expend a much larger 

 amount in preventing the people from catching the few that still remain 

 after generations of improvidence. 



The discussion of what the Fish Commissioner has done in the di- 

 rection of fish culture has been reserved to the last, since it is so much 

 the most extensive and, at present, practically valuable part of the 

 work. 



The relative extent of the three branches of the service may be indi- 

 cated by the apportionment of the appropriation during the first ten 

 years of the work. From $5,000 to $7,500 was annually given for the 

 investigation into the causes of the decrease of the fisheries ; for the 

 collection of statistics nothing was specifically allotted, while the entire 

 remainder was assigned to the stocking of inland waters. Of late years 

 no specific allotment of the appropriation has been made, though of 

 course the sum given for the support of the steamers is in large part to 

 be accredited to the department of coast investigation. An examination 

 of the accounts from 1871 to 1883 shows that from 75 to 85 per cent of the 

 money granted has been used for propagation, and that fully one-third 

 of the appropriations has been invested in the form of permanent ap- 

 pliances for present and future work. 



I am indebted to Mr. Earll for the following statistics of the work of 

 the United btates Commission : 



" As the operations of the Commission have increased, and the i)ropa- 

 gation of additional species has been undertaken, it has been found 

 desirable to increase the number of hatching stations. These are of 

 two kinds, known as collecting and distributing stations. The former 

 are located near the spawning grounds of those species for which they 

 are especially intended. The eggs are secured at these stations, and 

 enough having been reserved to stock the waters of that region, the re- 

 mainder are sent to distributing stations, usually located at some cen- 

 tral point, to be hatched and shipped to the waters for which they are 

 intended. 



" The following is a list of the hatching stations operated by the United 

 States Fish Commission in 1883 : 



1. Grand Lake Stream, Maine, station for collecting eggs of the Schoodic, 

 salmon [Salmo salar.vdr. sebago). 



