12 MSK AND GAME COMMISSION, 



FISH CULTURE DEPARTMENT. 



The detailed report of this department, which functions as heretofore 

 under W. II. Shel)h'y, the dean of all employees of the Commission, 

 shows its manifold activities and ramifications. Without screens, lad- 

 ders and pollution, which are now in separate bureaus, this depart- 

 ment of itself is still one huge business enterprise. New hatcheries are 

 being constructed; fish ponds are being built: and new theories are 

 constantly being tested. 



During the coming year a radical departure will be made in the 

 method of planting fish. Heretofore, prior to the fish planting season, 

 individuals, sportsmen, organizations, boards of supervisors, forest 

 service and others have applied to the Commission for allotments of 

 trout. As far as possible, the Fish Culture Department honored these 

 applications without any possibility of determining whether applicants 

 had proper facilities for transporting and planting the fish. The conse- 

 quence has been that for years the Commission has been blamed — for 

 the most part unjustly — for poor planting methods. The receiving of 

 fish from the Commission had become a right rather than a privilege, 

 and if the applicant were not given his requested allotment, an uproar 

 ensued. A study of the situation showed clearly that it was as much 

 the duty of the Commission to see that the fish were planted properly 

 as it was to rear healthy fry. There is no question but that our Fish 

 Culture Dei^artment is as efficiently managed as any in the country, 

 and that the taking of eggs and raising of fish is being conducted by 

 a man who is a past master in the art, and it has been a crime and a 

 shame that these fish after leaving the skillful hands of our own fisli 

 culturists, should be improperly planted, lost or destroyed, through 

 inexperienced or inefficient methods of handling. 



To remedy the situation an order has been issued by the executive 

 officer that the Commission will no longer receive any applications for 

 fish. Prior to the next fish planting season the Fish Culture Department 

 Avill send to each of the patrol captains of the state a communication 

 giving an initial estimate of the number and species of fish which can 

 be alloted to that district for the next season. Thereupon the patrol 

 captain will call into consultation those people in his district who 

 have heretofore received fish from the Commission, his own deputies 

 and such other persons as he deems interested. This conference, armed 

 with maps and all available data, will designate and allot to each stream 

 and lake within that patrol district tlie proper number and species of 

 fish. These proposed plantings will be designated as either primary 

 or secondary. The report will then be forwarded by the patrol captain 

 to the Department of Fish Culture, together with a designation of places 

 within the district at which the captain desires to receive the fish, and 

 the quantities for each destined point. From their knowledge of the 

 biological or other situations in the streams and lakes, the Fish Culture 

 Department will check these reports over for accuracy as to designated 

 ])lantings. Thereupon, when the Fish Culture Department knows with 

 certainty the number of fish available for planting during the season, 

 the captain of patrol will be notified whether his allotment will be made 

 in full or cut. If it is cut, the secondary plantings will be diminished. 

 When the planting season begins the Fish Culture Department will 



