FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 39 



in weight, one, two or three years old, which have been planted, 

 have been caught, shipped to market when worthless, or thrown 

 upon the shore to rot as not worth handling, or salted and sold 

 as herring. Such complaints have come to us by the fishermen 

 themselves and by nearly every dealer who handles Michigan 

 fish. 



But there is not space here and now to multiply examples to 

 prove, and I therefore content myself with stating the facts very 

 generally. In Michigan waters every year, the area of fishing 

 operations is greatly extended; miles of ground once productive 

 are abandoned; the average size of whitefish is gradually grow- 

 ing less; the price is gradually getting higher in the market; 

 and while some large firms are getting fairly profitable returns, 

 the fishermen as a class are getting poorer; where formerly the 

 nets were served by sailboats and rowboats, steamboats are fast 

 coming into common use; the demand for fish is increasing 

 steadily as the population increases; the total supply is compara- 

 tively stationary or falling below the increasing demand; and 

 all this means that the fisheries of our lakes are fast becoming 

 exhausted and ruined. These facts suggest some pertinent 

 inquiries, just such as are being asked of the State Fish Com- 

 missioners by the representatives of the people every year. 

 Has artificial propagation then been a failure' No, for it has 

 not had a fair chance in several ways. 



First — It has not been conducted upon a scale adequate to 

 accomplish the results. 



Where we are hatching about fifty millions of whitefish we 

 need from six to eight times that number every year to restore 

 the wasted and deserted grounds, as also to replenish and keep 

 up the stock in others yet productive. Numerous early experi- 

 ments were made of planting whitefish fry in interior lakes of 

 various sizes, where we now know they will not thrive because 

 the conditions of food and temperature are not favorable. This 

 could not be known without trial. But it does not follow that 

 the experiments should not have been tried. It was no waste of 

 time or money. The lessons learned from such failures are 

 perhaps more valuable than constant successes. There are large 

 and deep lakes in the interior of Michigan and other States 



