54 Tivciify-sci'cntli Annual Meeting 



breeders, and still retain enough to keep up the parent stock. 

 But wlien we come to whitefish and lake trout the closed season 

 law enforces adherence to the creed plan of merely breaking 

 even, and refuses an option on a plan that is absolutely certain 

 to yield immense gains. 



To illustrate the common sense, practical plan of "cropping" 

 certain waters, like similar areas of land, let us note the condi- 

 tions of whitefish life in Crystal Lake, a beautiful sheet lying 

 in Benzie County, near the shores of Lake Michigan. This lake 

 is one of the very few inland waters of Michigan that contain 

 whitefish, or that are capable of supporting the species in con- 

 siderable numbers. Judging from the number that assemble 

 on its stony shoals during the spawning month of November, 

 the lake probably contains a stock of twenty to forty tons of 

 adult whitefish. As fishing is limited by law to methods that 

 are ineffective so far as whitefish are concerned, these fish serve 

 no useful purpose, except as their ova and young contribute 

 to the food supply of other and less valuable denizens. 



But so far as the, production of whitefish is. concerned, this 

 fertile area, capable of yielding an annual crop equal to the pres- 

 ent matured stock, might as well be so much desert. It is obvi- 

 ous that if all of the adults were removed in any one year the 

 sources of food that sustained them would support a like num- 

 ber the following year, and so on indefinitely. To reap this 

 crop year after year, however, fishing by effective means must 

 be allowed, and a due proportion must be taken from their 

 spawning grounds, so that suflicient ova may be touched by 

 the magic wand of protected propagation to provide for future 

 'crops. Each crop must be reaped as fast as matured, else there 

 is no room for a succeeding one. But without protected propa- 

 gation we would soon reach the last link in the chain; with it 

 we would have the link that unites the ends into an endless cir- 

 cuit. 



And what is true of Crystal Lake is true of the Great Lakes 

 and many other waters. The trouble with production in the 

 Great Lake? is that far too many whitefish and trout are slaugh- 

 tered in immaturity, and too few adults are permitted to reach 

 their spawning grounds to allow the saving grace of protected 

 propagation to be employed on a scale of sufificient magnitude. 

 It seems a great pity that the parent fish when approaching their 

 spawning grounds, heavily laden with ova nearly matured but 

 still worthless for reproductive purposes, should be intercepted. 

 A few days of closed season at this particular time would be 



