.'hiicncan Fisheries Soeicly. 131 



in Illinois is exactly what ought to he done. He is spending 

 about $5,000 a year on the investigation of a single river practic- 

 ally; if he is able to continue that for a long enough time he 

 will get some idea of the condition of fish life in the rivers. 



.Mr. W'hitakcr: There is one thing I want to say in connec- 

 tion with this matter. Something like six years ago the import- 

 ance of this work of scientific inquiry into subjects relating to 

 fish life and culture and the conditions that surround them and 

 have bearing on fish life impressed its importance upon me. The 

 matter was brought to the attention of our board, after a con- 

 versation with Prof. Reighard at Ann Arbor, and we determined 

 to establish a field station. A certain amount of money was de- 

 voted to that work. The amount of money that was required was 

 very insignificant compared with the value of the work done. 

 It was thought best to make that work permanent, but the econ- 

 omy of the legislature finally compelled us to stop it after having 

 prosecuted it for two or three seasons. I don't think there is 

 any argument needed on the importance of the continuance of 

 this work. It has always impressed itself as a necessity upon me. 

 During his lifetime I interviewed Col. McDonald two or three 

 times on this subject, urging him to take it up, telling him that 

 we would be very glad to surrender the work to the United States 

 Comn-.ission, and it was a work that ought to be kept up. At 

 last it has come to the point where the work is liable to he put 

 on a permanent basis. I believe it is going to result in much 

 good to the cause of fish culture. What we want to know is 

 something about the life habits of fish. It would be interesting 

 to know whether there are given areas in the lakes that are stocked 

 with the food of fish more plentifully than others, which would 

 influence the decision as to the most likelv places in which to 

 {ilant fish. ( )f course, in connection with that there is this ques- 

 tion as to the food of the fr}-. Can we determine anything about 

 the conditions that arc necessary to give the best results to 

 ])e expected from planting?" If we can do that we are acting 

 intelligently as fish culturists. We should get at those things 

 which are as important for the fish culturist to know as it is im- 

 portant for the farmer to know the constituents of his soil. It is 

 a fact that this work has heretofore been done in a spasmodic 

 sort of a way and it is a fact that we have been unable to establish 

 anything like a permanent force to carry on the work the year 

 round. It is a fact that the scientific gentlemen who have thus 

 far been active in this work have donated tlieir time and that 

 their vacations have been given up to it. time they ought to have 



