.liiicncaii ris/icrirs Society. 95 



ward course unvard Lake ICric, and enter the lake tliroui^li the 

 influence of "a natural distributor," so to si)eak. I'vum the 

 Northvillc Statii)n this past year we j^jhuited nearly 7,000,000 lake 

 trout fry in Michig-an waters of the Great Lakes. The number of 

 pounds of lake trout caug-ht during the year in Michig-an waters 

 of the Great Lakes is. in round niunbers, about 7,000,000. Now, 

 allowing that the fish would average five pounds each (which is 

 a low estimate), just about 1,400,000 lake trout were caught dur- 

 ing the year 1899. Now, supposing that of the 7,000,000 lake 

 trout fr\- planted from the Northville Station one of every five 

 reached maturity and averaged five pounds. It is readily seen that 

 (should these proportions be kept up from year to year) the plants 

 from Northvillc alone would keep up the supply of all the Michi- 

 gan waters of the Great Lakes, the catch being regulated by the 

 number of fry planted, to say nothing of the aid by natural pro- 

 duction. And this allows for a loss of 80 per cent of the fry 

 planted! These facts impress one with the thought that the 

 work of the practical fish-culturist to the stage of fry production 

 has about reached the limit of practical perfection. 



The production of the fry constitutes only the fundamental 

 operations of protected propagation ; the maturity of the same is 

 the consunnnation of the art, the result desired. 



It is now a question of fry maintenance, rather than of fry 

 production, that confronts us. It will eventually be solved, as 

 "Necessity becomes the mother of investigation.'' 



DISCUSSION OF MR. CLARK's PAPER. 



Air. Brvant: Air. Clark expressed doubt as to whether the 

 planting of fry on the natural spawning grounds was the best 

 place to make such plants. If you deposit fry there that are 

 hatched artificially, w^ouldn't they have the same instinct as the 

 fry that hatch on their own ground, and wouldn't they go to the 

 very places, in search of food, as the fry hatched there? 



Mr. Clark: What I would say in regard to that is, we know 

 the whitefish are decreasing, except where the fry have been 



