FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 73 



In its inception, the artificial propagation of certain species of 

 Salmonidce, with the view of planting them in depleted streams in 

 which the species was native or indigenous, was the aim and 

 limit of fish-culture as then understood and practiced. 



The fish-culture of to-day, broader in its aims, grander in its 

 achievements, more rational in its methods and infinite in its 

 possibilities, finds in the artificial propagation and planting of 

 fish but one of the means to an end. This resource places at 

 our command, in measure without stint, the seed of the harvest ; 

 we may scatter it broadcast in rivulet and river, in pond and 

 lake and tidal waters, but whether the seed thus sown will grow 

 and ripen to a full fruition depends upon conditions which must 

 be studied, interpreted and defined, and where unfavorable, 

 modified or eliminated. 



We should be prepared, therefore, to appreciate and provide 

 for the wide range of inquiry and investigation we, as a society, 

 are called upon to suggest, to foster, or to inaugurate. 



PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



Each species with which we have to deal has a life histor}- of 

 its own. In its manner or mode of reproduction and develop- 

 ment, in its habits, food and habitat, it is in essential relations 

 to its environment. Our success in repopulating our rivers with 

 species indigenous to them and in acclimating in new waters 

 species which are valuable for food or sport, will be measured 

 by the fidelity and precision with which we study, interpret and 

 apply the lessons taught us by the naturalist, the biologist, the 

 physicist and the chemist. 



It should be the business of this society to enlist in its service 

 or to invite to co-operation in its work, all those whose intel- 

 lectual activities find occupation and engrossment in studies and 

 investigations which may seem to the casual observer to have no 

 practical application, but which are just as essential to the ac- 

 complishment of the work we have set before us, as is the 

 artificial propagation and planting of fish ; for upon the right 

 interpretation of such investigations depends success or failure 

 in the practical work of fish-culture. 



