138 American Fisheries Society 



there to be caught. • What we want is to know just what ought to be done as 

 a remedy. 



(In reply to questions by Mr. Titcomb and Mr. O'Malley, Mr. Barber 

 replied that the Wisconsin law absolutely compelled the paper factories 

 to keep poisonous wastes out of the streams and that the system of pre- 

 vention is just being installed this year.) 



Mr. G. C. Leach: Sometimes deleterious substances are turned into the 

 streams inadvertently. For instance, out through the west, where they have 

 so many stamping mills, cyanide is used and sometimes it will moisten the 

 tank and get into the streams. Of course it usually kills all the fish in the 

 immediate neighborhood until it passes down the stream and becomes 

 diluted, and it is not always through the fault of the companies having 

 the plants. 



Mr. M. L. Alexander, of Louisiana: We have been giving this matter 

 some attention down south, and have ample law, as far as that is concerned, 

 to cover it. The large paper mills recently erected there, costing several 

 millions of dollars, take ingredients out of pine trees. The matter that 

 comes from those mills has discolored the water very much, but I found 

 that it has not killed the fish, nor affected it for drinking water for stock. 

 However, we have had these people run their water as far as possible out into 

 the streams and across the sand bars, to give it a filtration process. 



Another large industry down there is the distillation of pine stumps, 

 a sort of alcoholic distillation that seems to be very poisonous indeed. The 

 particular factory that I investigated has poisoned the stream on which it is 

 located for about twenty-five miles, and the water was even poisonous to 

 stock — a very serious problem. I had the manager come down from New 

 York, and they are now trying to perfect some system that will correct this, 

 though it will cost them a good deal of money. 



The most serious trouble, however, that we have on our bayous and 

 streams in that low country is the poisonous matter that comes from the 

 sugar refineries. The manufacture of sugar is one of our greatest industries, 

 and great numbers of these refineries are located along the bayous and 

 streams, and during the period of their operation they unquestionably kill 

 the fish through the acids that come from the waste matter from those 

 mills. We have made a general survey of the situation and have tried as 

 far as possible to run this matter off through the swamps, but it comes back 

 into the streams. 



We have absolute authority under the law to close down these factories 

 that poison the streams, but to close them down would mean the destruction 

 of the entire sugar crop that has to be harvested in a very short space of 

 time, about fifty days. If we put these drastic laws into effect it will destroy 

 the crop of sugar, which the Government particularly needs at this time. 

 Louisiana is producing 85% of the cane sugar of the United States. We 

 cannot do it, so we have to let them kill some of the fish. 



