112 American Fisheries Society 



care much about it. Of course if you have a big stream with logs 

 running down, provision would have to be made accordingly; but moss, 

 sage brush and sticks I think could be handled with ordinary screens. 



Mr. Thompson: It is a problem which has been up before a number 

 of our states in the Rocky Mountain country and in California, es- 

 pecially. Simple as it may seem in theory, in practice it has been 

 found most perplexing. 



Dr. H. B. Ward, Urbana, 111. : Mr. President. I listened to the read- 

 ing of the paper with a great deal of interest, because I have just 

 returned from a 3 weeks' fishing trip in the San Luis valley, of which 

 something was said, and while there I had the good fortune to come 

 in contact with the places to which reference was made, and also with 

 a number of persons in various walks of life representing different 

 interests, so that I had some opportunity to get the point of view of 

 different classes of persons on this question. 



I am very glad to know from so careful a source that the changes 

 in methods of irrigation have been advantageous to the propagation of 

 our mountain trout. On the other hand, I cannot fully agree with the 

 speaker that the situation is quite what it ought to be ; and it seems to 

 me that he gives away the secret of the whole matter in saying that 

 those who are conducting the operations in connection with irrigation, 

 do not want to bother with this problem. I think we have passed the 

 time when any class of people has the right to say that it does not want 

 to bother with a problem concerning the conservation of our natural 

 resources; and T submit to this body, when from the irrigating ditches 

 of the San Luis valley, trout, small trout, fair sized trout, to the extent, 

 not of bushes or barrels, but to the extent of wagonloads, are shoveled 

 out from those ditches in the fall, that the state of Colorado is not 

 doing its duty at some point or other. It may be difficult to place the 

 responsibility, though some persons might try to do it. It may be diffi- 

 cult tn find the precise remedy, but a loss of that magnitude, the de- 

 struction of valuable fish represented by any such quantity, indicates 

 a failure to safeguard the interests of that community, for which some- 

 body or some class of persons is responsible; and I feel very strongly 

 that we should not be doing our full duty if we failed to call attention 

 to the problem very forcibly. 



In talking with the citizens of that valley, I remember very dis- 

 tinctly the remarks that were made by some persons there which con- 

 firmed the statements of the author of this paper. One gentleman, a 

 physician of education and standing, said to me that there was a device 

 which was reasonably successful in keeping trout out of the ditches, 

 referring to the paddle wheel device which has been mentioned; but 

 that the people who owned and controlled the ditches did not want to 

 1 Hither with it, and that thus far the state had not compelled them to 

 do anything. 



Now, the state of Colorado is putting a great deal of money into 

 hatching brook and other trout. Why, may I ask, are these fish per- 



