324 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



States. The term "fish cuUurist," it appears, meant 

 merely a breeder of trout, for although Seth Green had 

 been successful in hatching shad and Livingston Stone had 

 hatched salmon in New Brunswick, the work other than 

 with brook trout had been experimental rather than prac- 

 tical. Thus fish culture not only meant merely trout cul- 

 ture, but trout culture meant only the breeding of fonti- 

 nalis or brook trout. The fish culturists who organized, 

 therefore, were trout culturists, and their original purpose 

 is declared in the following call : 



The undersigned, desirous of promoting the interests of fish cul- 

 ture, call a convention of pisciculturists, at the Skating Rink, City of 

 New York, December 20, 1870, at 11.00 A.M. 



The design of the convention is consultation for the protection of 

 our interests, and, if thought best, to organize a permanent association. 



Mystic Bridge, Conn., Nov. 1, 1870. (Signed) 



W. Clift, 

 A. S. Collins, 

 J. H. Slack, 

 F. Mather, 

 L. Stone. 



But selfish commercial interest was never more promptly 

 extinguished than upon the assembling of these fish cultur- 

 ists, for, says Mr. Stone, writing some years later, — 



As soon as the first annual meeting of the Association was held, it 

 was apparent that its future efforts were to be directed to the promo- 

 tion of the public good rather than to the furtherance of private inter- 

 ests. This happy change was at once cheerfully accepted by all, and the 

 subject of regulating the tariff of prices was only once mentioned, I 

 believe, and then dropped forever. 



■ The public spirit which was to characterize the future of 

 this organization appeared at its second meeting in a mo- 

 tion made by George Shepard Page. This motion pro- 

 posed that the Association memorialize Congress to the 

 entl that tlie government establish two or more fish-cultnral 

 stations. The fruits which this action bore, and the part 

 it played in molding the future of practical fish culture in 

 the United States are expressed by Professor Spencer F. 

 Baird, United States Fish Commissioner, in his official re- 

 port for 1875-76: 



