20 Tz^'oity-scz'CtttJi Ainiiial Meeting 



certainly be enough to keep the streani well stocked, under the 

 protection of a close season eight months in the year. But our 

 experience teaches us that it does not matter how well a stream 

 Is stocked, if it is fisiied for two or three seasons, fry must be 

 supplied from the hatcheries if it is to continue to produce good 

 fishing. 



I have done some figuring on my own account to get at the 

 number of whitefish eggs, deposited naturally, required to pro- 

 duce one mature fish weighing two and one-half pounds. I have 

 taken the whole number of pounds whitefish caught on the chain 

 of Great Lakes, that is. Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, St. 

 Clair, Georgian Bay and LalTe Erie (not including fish taken 

 from Lake Erie in Pennsylvania and Ohio waters), which in 1896 

 was 8,223,900 pounds. Estimating that each fish taken weighed 

 two and one-half pounds, we find that 3,289,560 whitefish were 

 caught. Estimating that there were left in the water three times 

 as many fish as were taken out and that six-thirteenths of the 

 fish are females (I believe that most practical fishermen will agree 

 that these estimates are lowj, we find that there were 4,554,747 

 female fish producing eggs. Allowing an average of 30,000 eggs 

 for each female, we find that 136,642,220,000 eggs were deposited 

 naturally and produced only 3,289,560 mature fish. Thus we find 

 that of 41,568 eggs deposited naturally, only one fish comes to 

 maturity. Of course, many things must be taken into considera- 

 tion in making these estimates; and at best the estimates as well 

 as the results obtained are barely approximate. Yet it gives us 

 something of an idea of the vast number of eggs that must be 

 deposited in the natural process, to produce a single mature fish. 

 In making these figures no account is made of the millions of 

 whitefish irs' annually ])lanted by the several states and the United 

 States. 



Thus after spending twenty-five years in the work of fish cul- 

 ture and propagation, I cannot but conclude that an enormous 

 loss of fish of nearly all species occurs in the egg stag'e, because 

 the eggs deposited by the female are not fertilized. The result is, 

 our streams and lakes become depleted of fish within a short time 

 after men with modern fishing apparatus begin to take fish from 

 the waters for food. Nature's provisions for the survival and 

 increase of the several species of fish are not adequate. To rec- 

 tify this apparent error in nature's laws, we have resorted to arti- 

 ficial propagation with gratifying results. That we still have 

 much to learn in this work, we all agree. But at the same time, 

 I believe that all fish culturists and those whose knowledge of the 



