FIFTKEN'IH ANXUAI, MEETING. 9I 



sort them out, and have a tank car, and that car is filled up with 

 the young fish and is run over all the railroads in the State, and 

 wherever we cross a river we stop and dump in our fish, and we 

 have distributed a great many hundred thousand of fish with 

 very gratifying success, as we get from all portions of the State 

 reports of the pickerel, bass and perch where they never were 

 known before. This is a work that is easily and cheaply done, 

 and considering the numbers of the fish we have distributed, it is 

 much cheaper than any other work that is done in that line. It 

 is so very effective that I feel like suggesting it to the members, 

 particularly of the Western States here, believing it is really a 

 much more effective and profitable way of spending money than 

 bv hatching and attempting to plant the fish where they are not 

 indigenous. 



Mr. Clark. — I understand they are planted in streams where 

 they were not before. Do you think you would have got the 

 same result if you had planted little fry in those same streams .' 



Mr. Fairbank. — Oh no, I agree with you the larger the fish 

 the better, still the character of the water of the small streams 

 is similar to the Mississippi. Before the fish are sorted he picks 

 out the best varieties, thinking that is the best way to plant them, 

 and last season he has taken all kinds and thrown them in, so 

 that the poorer varieties may make food for the others. 



Mr. Dunning. — There is a fish that is becoming quite common 

 all over the country, from north to south and east to west, and I 

 would like to have an expression of this meeting in regard to 

 the fish being a profitable one for propagation. It is the carp, 

 and we read what a great size it attains in a very few years, and 

 how prolific it is. 



Mr. Bart LETT. — I would simply say that in my opinion it 

 solves the question of the cheapest food for the greatest number 

 of people, for the least amount of money. This question can be 

 solved in the propagation of carp. In the state of Illinois there 

 are now 6,000 carp ponds, and a great many of them are pro- 

 ducing fish to-day. Applications this year on file for carp num- 

 ber 2.500. in round numbers, and they are increasing every day. 



