A iticriran Fishrncs Society. 135 



cateliiiig tlu'in oul. and not over that iiumlxT of frv should be 

 retained to come on for the coming year's supply. 



To recapitnlate : ]\Iake your embankment good and safe; 

 don't try to breed too liigh-toned fish; look to it that voui- |)ond 

 does not become overstocked and. other things being e(|ual, von 

 will succeed. 



DISCUSSIOX OF MR. STRAXAIIAX's J'ATKR. 



]\Ir. Titcoml) : I think ]\Ir. Stranahan has brought out one 

 very im])ortant point tbere. In the first place, this question of 

 fish culture on the farm is very important, and it is not taken 

 up enough in this country, and a great deal might be nuide of 

 it. I can see in my work in Washington that this form of fish 

 culture is growing very rapidly, especially in the west and south- 

 west. 



But he l)rought out in the ])a])er one other point wliich every 

 fish commissioner and culturist must appreciate, namely, tlu^ 

 fat-t that people who know iiothing about what they want will 

 a])])ly for some variety or species of fish that does not iidutbit 

 their Avaters — they want something new. Somebody up in Con- 

 necticut will send down for Calico bass, for instance, wlien tliey 

 have black bass or trout. They may have all the fishes that are 

 desirable in their waters, Init they want something entirely new. 

 It is a great mistake to try to get too many varieties of fish in a 

 pond. We had an application in Xew England in the past weeic 

 Avhere they had l)lack bass, pickerel, sunfish and ycllnw pei'cli, 

 and they wanted us to introduce the rock bass. In my opinion 

 they had as many varieties as the pond could well sustain, aird 

 it is a great mistake to try to get in too many varieties. 



Mr. Lane: ]\lr. Wood in his pa])er in last year's report said 

 something about the difi'erent kinds of parent trout that they 

 received eggs from, and I inferred that he preferred the wild 

 trout. I have found in oiu' instance that I shipped some trout 

 eggs to Pennsyhania. and .")() per ct'ut or more of them died, and 

 the man wrote me that it was pretty near a total failure. But 

 out of the same lot and on tlie same day there wvvv some sliipped 

 into the state of Maine, and those I have b(vn informed, hatched 

 out !»4 per cent. Tliey were the very sanu' eggs exactly. F wnsh 

 1 knew the cause of tlie trouble, hut I think I have learned some- 



