TWENTY-SEVENTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 



31 



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REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHCULTURE. 



The Honorable Board of Fisli and Game Commissioners of the State of 

 of California. 



Gentlemen: In couformity with the law and reguhitions of the Fish 

 and Game Commission, I have tlie honor to transmit a report of the 

 Department of Fishculture for the biennium ending June 30, 1922. 



During the last two seasons, covered by this report, we have made 

 a record output at our hatcheries, having hatched and distributed 

 40,974,000 trout fry and 18,037,000 salmon fry with the probability 

 that the season that we are now entering on will exceed the last one in 

 output of trout fry. We have hatched and distributed 19.000.000 

 salmon fry from eggs collected from the Klamathon station during the 

 last winter and spring that will not appear in the statistical report 

 until the next biennial report of the Commission. 



The limit of hatchery operations has been reached until the people, 

 through the legislature see fit to increase our funds for fishcultural 

 operations. We are now operating thirty hatcheries and egg-collect- 

 ing stations, several pond systems for the rearing of brood fish, two 

 distributing cars, on which we have been paying regular transporta- 

 tion rates over all the railroads in California, as well as a divison of 

 screens and fishways. The total valuation of the property of the state 

 in use in the fishcultural work, such as hatcheries, lands, fish cars and 

 equipment and all the other equipment necessary to successfully carry 

 on the work, is approximately $350,000. The repairs and improvements 

 on this property amounts to a large sum annually. We are continually 

 carrying on experiments and investigations to improve tlie work of 

 producing more and better fry and to get better results in our woi-k 

 of distribution. 



The same condition exists as I mentioned in my two last biennial 

 reports regarding the ever-increasing demand for trout fry caused l)y 

 the increasing population of the state and the easy accessibility of the 

 lakes and streams caused by the building of good roads and liighways 

 and the iLse of the automobiles that have placed within easy reach of 

 the lover of the outdoors, places that a few years ago were almost inac- 

 cessible. A comparatively short time ago, if a person in ordinary 

 circumstances nmde one trip to the mountains with a team during the 

 season and enjoyed a few days hunting or fishing, he Avas well satis- 

 fied, but now^ with the advent of the automobile, there arc hundreds of 

 persons who go to some stream or lake to fish over each week end and 

 many times during the whole period that the season is open. The limit- 

 ing of the catch to twenty-five trout per day by the last session of our 



