546 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2)4 
the water; and by the development of gases, whose presence may be 
perceived by the smell. As soon as the necessary degree of brittleness 
has been reached, the plants are taken out of the water and dried in the 
air, during which process these decaying vegetable substances fill the 
entire neighborhood with miasmatic exhalations to such a degree as to 
cause animals to refuse to pass by. The impure water is frequently 
poured into the nearest running water, and the sanitary authorities 
have in most cases vigorously opposed this method. 
The Thiiringian Fishery Association therefore passed a resolution at 
its last annual meeting to cause an investigation of the disputed ques- 
tion of the injurious character of this retting water, and commissioned 
me to conduct this investigation. This fact had hardly been mentioned 
by several of our papers when I received from Chief Forester Mr. Wilke, 
of Waltershausen, a report on the subject, which he voluntarily placed 
at my disposal, portions of which I shall, with his consent, embody in 
this article, as communications of this kind are exceedingly acceptable 
in giving a practical insight into the matter. 
Mr. Wilke was for a considerable time stationed near the River Nesse, 
along the banks of which flax is cultivated on a large scale, and where 
the moist method of retting is universally employed. Mr. Wilke says: 
‘¢ Although it is prohibited by law to ret flax in rivers, I have every 
year seen large masses of flax, both in the bed of the Nesse and more 
especially in its small tributaries, where the water has been dammed 
for the purpose of retting flax. In these tributaries pestiferous pools 
are created. When such pools have been used for retting for any length 
of time, they are opened, and the whole mass of foul and putrid water 
is emptied into the river, and every living being coming within its 
reach is doomed. 
‘As soon as the retting of the flax commences, the water begins to 
assume a brownish color and to emit an offensive odor. This color and 
odor increase in intensity from day to day, till the water has the color 
of coffee, and the odor becomes so repulsive that I have often gone one- 
half league out of my way so as not to be obliged to pass near such 
water, especially in the morning and evening. The drier and warmer 
the temperature the more intense will be the odor and the infection of 
the water. 
‘¢ Whenever the water has attained a certain degree of putridity all 
the fish will strive to reach the bank, gasping for air, and in such a 
state of torpor that they can easily be caught with the hand. If they 
do not speedily get fresh, pure water, they die, and remain lying on the 
bank, where they serve as food for birds, or are caught in the grates of 
mills, from which they are gathered, only to be thrown away. 
‘‘At one station I have known years when fish of all kinds were 
picked off the mill-grates by the hundred weight, some dead and some 
alive. ‘The dead fish were immediately thrown away, and the live ones 
