A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 525 



years have been successful in improving feeding rations in hatcheries 

 and in combating disease. Notable progress has been made also in 

 demonstrating the effectiveness of using improved strains of breeding 

 stock to increase productiveness and the rate of growth, and to 

 heighten resistance to disease. Improved methods of prophylaxis 

 and treatment of diseases occurring in hatcheries have also been 

 devised. Much remains, however, to be done in these directions, 

 and especially must the principles devised in existing experimental 

 stations be adapted and applied to the particular conditions that 

 obtain in national forest areas of the West. The resident biologist 

 in the forest areas therefore must take active part in these experi- 

 mental studies, both in the field and laboratory, as well as in the 

 stream survey programs, in order to make proper use of the survey 

 data in the management of the fish supplies. In view of the vast 

 areas to be covered and the diversity of technical problems requiring 

 attention, it should be obvious that no single biologist is capable of 

 carrying on effectively all phases of the work simultaneously, but that 

 sufficient technical personnel should be provided to make division of 

 the work possible, thus assuring the acquisition of the most essential 

 information at the earliest moment. 



Obviously many years will elapse before an area so great as that 

 covered by the national parks and forests of the United States is 

 brought under such a system of fishery management as is outlined 

 in the foregoing pages. The program, it is believed, is practical and 

 workable, however, for regardless of the extent of personnel or funds 

 available any progress made in the program of investigation, pro- 

 pagation, stocking, or improvement will have immediate value. 

 Even the information obtained from an area covered by a single 

 season's operations will provide a far sounder basis for fish stocking 

 in that area than exists at present, and within a few years time, with 

 adequate working support, a sufficient area will be brought under 

 scientific control to vastly augment the supply of food and game 

 fishes and to assure the perpetuation of this resource. 



