106 American Fisheries Society 



on this region by the Bureau of Fisheries for spawn for 

 brood stock at hatcheries all over the country. Indeed, 

 shipments of spawn from these introduced varieties are 

 being made every year, and with splendid success, to foreign 

 countries, as France, Germany, China, Japan and Argentina. 

 Commissioner Bowers in his report for 1905 states : 



The value of the Bureau's efforts to increase the supply of food and 

 game fishes in the interior waters have been strikingly illustrated in 

 Colorado where a number of non-indigenous fronts have been thor- 

 oughly established. The principal fish thus introduced is the eastern 

 brook trout, which is widely distributed in the state and probably 

 exists there in greater abundance than in any other state. Colorado 

 has now become the Bureau's chief source of supply for the eggs of 

 this species, and nowhere else is it possible to collect such large quan- 

 tities of eggs from wild trout. 



You ask me how we can harmonize or explain these ex- 

 isting favorable conditions of trout culture with the un- 

 promising outlook of 1889? In our analysis of this question 

 of the relation of fish culture, or to remain more clearly 

 within the limits of our subject, trout culture, to irrigation, 

 we find two stages of development and growth. The first or 

 basin period had reached its zenith at the period of Dr. Jor- 

 dan's investigation, while the second or perennial stage was 

 but in its infancy; hence was not recognized as being a possi- 

 ble factor in the future readjustment of fish-cultural 

 pn >blems. 



It had early been realized that only a small proportion of 

 the suitable lands could be irrigated from the natural flow 

 from the streams during the summer months. Storage of 

 the flood waters was recognized as the only possible solution 

 of the problem of the utilization of these otherwise valueless 

 acres. Investigation disclosed the fact that away up 

 among the mountains there existed many ideal sites where 

 reservoirs could be constructed at small cost and filled from 

 the melting snow, and where this surplus water could be 

 stored until needed. 



Reservoirs of varying sizes were created as though in 

 a nierht. First came those built bv the individual and by 



