118 American Fisheries Society 



those raised in the hatchery ponds, and my reason for asking is that 

 I have always believed that spawning bass gathered in the field would 

 not cost more than one-tenth of those reared for the purpose. The 

 work of gathering would extend only over a couple of weeks, while 

 otherwise the salaries of hatchery emiployees must be paid for the 

 whole year. 



Mr. Buller: I cannot answer the question as the work was done by 

 our regular trained employees who are employed the whole year 

 through and their expenses would be the same whether they worked 

 in the field or in the hatchery. 



President: I would suggest to Mr. Nesley that if everybody were 

 to work in that way the natural crop would become exhausted. 



Mr. Woods, of Missouri: What is the cause of the pollution of the 

 water of which Commissioner BuUer complains? 



President: Two or three years ago I had occasion to address this 

 Society on the pollution of streams. At that time the streams in 

 western and especially southwestern Pennsylvania were foul with the 

 yeUow sulphurous ofifal that comes from exhausted coal mines, and 

 there were no fish, frogs, insects or other living things in these streams. 



Mr. Duller: I recently made two trips through western and south- 

 western Pennsylvania to make observations on the pollution of streams 

 by coal mines and large manufacturing plants. Not even a typhoid 

 germ will live in those waters. The pollution comes from various 

 manufactories, paper mills, etc., and coal mines. One paper mill that 

 I particularly studied spends thousands of dollars weekly to purify 

 the water for a certain process, then runs its own refuse into the 

 stream for the next man below. 



President: The Chair will take occasion to say to Mr. Woods that 

 the causes of pollution are numerous. There are wastes from all sorts 

 of manufactories and others due to dense population. There are rivers 

 here in New England that are a dangerous asset. They are so black 

 that nothing will live in them, and the same is true of those of east- 

 ern New Jersey. The Ohio River is very nearly an open sewer below 

 Pittsburgh, and carries disease to the towns below. The task of clean- 

 ing up many rivers in the United States is a herculean one. 



Mr. Buller: In this campaign which the Department of Health 

 and the Department of Fisheries are making in Pennsylvania, ninety- 

 five per cent, of the manufacturers are in full accord with us and 

 are spending thousands of dollars with the result that they have elim- 

 inated much of the pollution, but it is a stupendous task. The dif- 

 ficulty is to find a way to take care of the large quantities of pollut- 

 ing material. 



President: Most of you are aware that a great deal of our effort 

 in fish culture in this country is lost on account of the pollution of 

 the water. We are pouring young fish into streams, which, while 

 pure at their head-waters, are impure and unfit for fish life farther 

 down. It is evident that we are approaching the point where the 

 pollution nuisance will be intolerable and we will have to clean up 

 as they have done in many parts of Europe. Factory wastes can be 

 made into by-products, and sewage can be converted into fertilizer 

 for the soil. This nuisance can be abated whenever the courts make 

 it too expensive for manufacturers to continue as they are now doing. 



Mr. Thomas, of Virginia: In western Pennsylvania there are forty 

 thousand coke ovens which have allowed all the gas to go to waste. 

 But at Bethany the gas is made use of to run their own furnaces 

 and to furnish the city with gas at the same time, and not one thing 

 is allowed to go to waste. That is a sample of what can be done 

 by scientific methods. 



