The Lure of the North Woods 



By D. Lange 



(Kxtracts from Address) 



IP appears that the greatest lure to the North woods are 

 the fish, which still teem in the countless lakes. No doubt 

 you have all heard of the German carp which has been 

 introduced into the streams of this country and has now 

 greatly multiplied in the Mississippi and some of its large 

 tributaries. This fish is considered, at least in this part of 

 the country, as a comparatively worthless fish. In Germany 

 it is considered a delicacy. The principal reason that we do 

 not appreciate it in this country, is that no country in the 

 world possesses such a wealth of high-grade food fish as 

 North America. Pike and bass and crappie and pickerel and 

 trout and white fish and gold eye and sturgeon and spoon 

 bill, are a small random list of the most desirable ones. It 

 very remarkable that this enormous asset has thus far 

 en entirely ignored. Many carloads of fish, it is true, are 

 lipped every year from Lake Superior, Lake of the Woods, 

 ike Pepin, the St. Croix river, and other large bodies of 

 iter within the state, but thus far our method' of fishing 

 is been one purely of exploitation. 

 I believe the time has come when a careful study should 

 made of the fishery resources of Minnesota in international 

 well as in state waters. I believe that with scientific man- 

 jement the production of one of the most wholesome food 

 supplies could easily be increased ten or a hundredfold in 

 this state, but the thing that is most needed is a careful, 

 scientific study of the conditions governing the fish life in 

 the several large bodies of interstate and international wa- 

 ters. For instance, how could the fisheries in Red Lake and 

 Mille Lacs be made most productive? What would be the 

 best methods of utilizing the fish in the Minnesota river, and 

 in the interstate waters of Lake Pepin, the Mississippi and 

 St. Croix rivers, and in the international waters of Lake Su- 

 perior, Rainy river, Rainy lake and Lake of the Woods? The 

 white fish in Lake Superior are already so scarce that they 



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