72 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



vided for, stand a less danger of destruction, and consequently 

 in such, the ratio between the eggs laid and fertilized and the 

 young matured, is very much less than that between the number 

 of eggs of the indifferent parents and that of other progeny 

 matured. 



SOME OBJECTIVE POINTS IN FISH-CULTURE. 



BY M. m'dONALD. 



I do not propose in this paper here presented to the considera- 

 tion of the members of the American Fisheries Society, either 

 to describe the apparatus, discuss the methods, or estimate the 

 results accomplished by the work of artificial propagation and 

 planting of fish in the inland, river and coast waters of the 

 United States. 



These topics have been and will be discussed during the prog- 

 ress of our meetings, bv gentlemen much better qualified to in- 

 struct and interest you than I profess to be. 



Your attention is invited not to what fish-culture has already 

 accomplished, but rather to what remains to be done, before we 

 can consider its mission ended. 



It is proposed, as briefly as may be, to indicate the objective 

 points yet unattained, toward which our efforts, energies and 

 investigations should be directed, and to suggest some of the 

 agencies which must be invoked, and which must co-operate in 

 dealing with the important question : How shall we restore our 

 inland, coast and ocean fisheries to their former abundance and 

 maintain them at a maximum of production ? 



Less than a generation ago fish-culture was an art rude in ap- 

 pliances, crude in its methods, sentimental rather than practical 

 in its aims, and insignificant in its results. To-day it confronts 

 us as an industrial and economical question of the first rank — 

 too grave in its issues, too vital in its relations to be ignored or 

 disregarded. 



