10 REPORT OF BOARD OP FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 



do this by issuing letters and bulletins from time to time, as well as by 

 complying with that provision of the law which specifically requires 

 this Board to biennially submit to the Governor a full report. 



We aim to work on broad, practical and economical lines, and to 

 make the Commission something more than a police force. We shall 

 endeavor to enforce the laws for the preservation of fish and game, 

 and to stock the public waters of the State with food and game fishes 

 best suited to them. By economic and scientific investigations we hope 

 to disclose the life, habits, and abundance of our fish and game, and 

 the conditions most favorable to conserve and, if possible, increase the 

 supply. 



We shall maintain a State Game Farm, and shall use every effort 

 to propagate our native species of game, and in particular, the valley 

 quail, recognized as one of the finest game birds in the world — and 

 certainly the game bird best suited to the uplands of this State. 



We shall continue to operate the fish hatcheries to their full capacity, 

 and to distribute the output in suitable public waters in every section of 

 the State. We will not stock private waters. We shall give to the 

 distribution of the fish produced in the fish hatcheries the greatest care-, 

 endeavoring not only to see that the young fish are intelligently liber- 

 ated where they may best thrive, but by close observation to ascertain 

 the success of such methods, and to ascertain further if additional and 

 more effective measures can be found. 



It has already been demonstrated that the operations of the hatch- 

 eries and the stocking of streams in the State with native and non- 

 indigenous fish have produced great results. No other state has reaped 

 as great reward from the moneys so expended. 



We believe that, notwithstanding the notable success that has already 

 followed the introduction and the acclimatization of new food and 

 game fishes in the waters of this State, as well as the propagation of 

 our native fishes, much can yet be accomplished; that our waters may 

 be made to produce even more abundantly; for, notwithstanding that 

 this Commission has been in existence for forty years and has accom- 

 plished greater results than any similar commission in the United 

 States, very little attention has been directed to a study of the life and 

 habits of any of our food fishes. To intelligently conserve and increase 

 our aquatic food supply it is essential to be conversant with the life, 

 habits, food, abundance and the principal enemies. Until we know the 

 time and place where our food fishes propagate, the w^aters frequented 

 by their young, and the conditions essential for successful development, 

 we can not proceed intelligently. And, we regret to say that until 

 recently, the Commission was not in possession of sufficient positive 

 information of this character. To obtain such knowledge, we have 

 during the past eighteen months begun a systematic and scientific inves- 

 tigation of the life of onr most important food and game species. For 

 this work we have been enabled to enlist the services of several Avell 

 known scientific men. 



