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6 | DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND FISH EGGS 
their destination in railroad cars equipped for the purpose, or by 
messengers who accompany the shipments in baggage cars, and are 
delivered to the applicant, free of charge, at the railroad station 
nearest the point of deposit. During the past fiscal year (July 1, 1906, 
to June 30, 1907), the Bureau received 6,346 applications for fish, 
nearly all for the game species. The demand, especially for the basses, 
crappie, and the catfishes, is greater than can be mct with present 
resources. 
ALLOTMENTS. 
The supply of particular fishes available for distribution, and con- 
sequently of the number allotted to individual applicants, is largely 
determined by the difference in methods of hatching the different 
species and the present facilities therefor. The area and character 
of the water to be stocked, however, must likewise be considered; 
the water area that would receive a million pike perch fry would per- 
haps be assigned no more than 200 or 300 black bass 3 or 4 inches 
long, or four to eight times that many if the bass were planted as 
fry. The explanation is in the fact that pike perch can be propa- 
gated by the hundred million, while black bass, hatched by other 
methods or collected from overflowed lands, can be produced only 
in comparatively small numbers. The Bureau does not attempt to 
assign any applicant more than a liberal brood stock of the basses or 
sunfishes. With brook trout, which are distributed both as fry and 
fingerlings, allotments of fry are many times larger than allotments 
of fingerlings 3 to 4 inches long. 
SIZE OF FISH WHEN DISTRIBUTED. 
Fishes are distributed at various stages of development, according 
to the species, the numbers in the hatcheries, and the facilities for 
rearing. The commercial fishes—such as the shad, whitefish, lake 
trout, pike, perch, cod, etc., hatched in lots of many millions—are nec- 
essarily planted as fry. It is customary to distribute them just before 
the umbilical sac is completely absorbed. Atlantic salmon, land- 
locked salmon, and various species of trout, in such numbers as the 
hatchery facilities permit, are reared to fingerlings from 1 to 6 inches 
in length; the remainder are distributed as fry. 
The basses and sunfishes are distributed from the fish-cultural 
stations and ponds from some three weeks after they are hatched until 
they are several months of age. When the last lots are shipped the 
basses usually range from 4 to 6 inches and the sunfishes from 2 to 4 
inches in length. The numerous fishes collected in overflowed 
lands—basses, crappie, sunfishes, catfishes, yellow perch, and others— 
are 2 to 6 inches in length when taken and distributed. 
