GAME AND FISH INCREASE 



By PROF. D. LANGE, 

 Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul, Minn. 



THERE is no region in the world 

 where the hunter or camper, or 

 the general lover of outdoor life 

 may find such absolute freedom 

 as in our own North Woods, and if the 

 resources of this great country, which 

 equals about the whole of Great Britain, 

 were better known, the people of St. 

 Louis, Kansas City and Omaha, in fact 

 all the inhabitants of the Mississippi 

 Valley, would resort to our own North 

 Woods, just as the people of Europe 

 flock in hundreds and thousands to the 

 Alps. 



I should like to call attention to the 

 possibility, and, as I believe, to the ne- 

 cessity of encouraging the domestica- 

 tion or semi-domestication of game and 

 fur-bearing animals. 



Although it is an axiom of game pro- 

 tection that wild game cannot be sold 

 on the market, it seems ridiculous that 

 in this young country, where we still 

 have such abundance of game, and such 

 enormous areas of wild land, it is prac- 

 tically impossible to buy game, while in 

 such old countries as Germany and Eng- 

 land venison can frequently be bought 

 at least as cheap, if not cheaper than, 

 beef. The answer is that in Germany 

 and England a great deal of game is 

 kept in a state of semi-domestication. 



It appears that the greatest lure to 

 the North Woods are the fish, which 

 still teem in the countless lakes. 



I believe the time has come when a 

 careful study should be made of the 

 fishery resources of Minnesota in In- 

 ternational as well as in State waters. I 

 believe that with scientific management 

 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 con- 

 ditions governing the fish life in the 

 several large bodies of interstate and 

 international waters. 



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 inter- 

 national waters of Lake Superior, Rainy 

 River, Rainy Lake and Lake of the 

 Woods? The sturgeon of Lake of the 

 Woods have become comparatively 

 scarce and small, and as yet no method 

 is known for their successful propaga- 

 tion. 



The same statement is true of the 

 spoonbill found in the Mississippi and 

 the Minnesota, and which once was ex- 

 ceedingly common in Lake Pepin, but 

 has now become rare. Of this fish no 

 successful method of propagation is 

 known. 



It may be news to some of my hearers 

 that there is one fish inhabiting Minne- 

 sota lakes and rivers which goes to the 

 ocean to spawn. That is our common 

 eel. When the eels are sexually mature 

 they migrate out of the rivers to the 

 ocean and spawn there. 



I believe that a systematic study of 

 the fishery question would discover some 

 way by which our fish resources can be 

 commercially utilized without infring- 

 ing in any wav upon the rights of 

 sportsman, which, of course, should be 

 respected. 



In Charge of Field Work 



Mr. Kenneth M. Clark, of the James W. Sewall office of Old Town. Me., has obtained 

 two months' leave of absence, during which time he will take charge of the field work in 

 timber estimating and surveying for the Harvard Forest School. 



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