and the Maritime Provinces. 273 



this is not forest or timber land. It is covered with brush and scrub. 

 Time may make it forest, but it is not such to-day and it cannot perform 

 the work of timber-growth in giving out gradually the stored-up moisture, 

 nor in withholding the sudden rush of snow-water or heavy rain. The 

 only remedy for this condition in our trout streams, that I can see, lies in 

 generous and persistent stocking, using for the purpose, fry, fingerlings and 

 adult fish. This State has not, as yet, reached the point when such work 

 can be done. Nor will it until the men interested in fish and fishing, unite 

 and insist that the greatest good to the greatest number shall be the 

 governing rule. 



Our law regarding the open season for taking trout, owing to the geo- 

 graphical and climatic conditions existing in the State, is not, I think, a 

 wise one. In this county (Litchfield), for instance, April 1st is too early 

 a date for the opening of the season. Oftentimes the snow-banks still 

 line the brooks and ice lingers in them. The fish are poor, sluggish, and 

 of no value for food, and their capture while in this condition cannot be 

 called sport, for any one who has the patience can take all the trout in a 

 given hole by letting the bait drift against the mouth of each fish therein. 



The State should own and operate hatcheries, retaining ponds, and 

 pools at which sufficient trout can be hatched and reared to reasonably stock 

 all streams still fit for these fish to live in, and which are open to the public. 



Until concerted action on the part of those who are interested in the 

 preservation of fish and fishing, as well as those to whom the beauty and 

 healthfulness of our State is dear, is taken, the thoughtlessness and greed 

 of the few will abridge the pleasure and menace the health of the many. 

 While it is true that now and then the man, the day and the place come 

 together, and a good day's sport is the result with either rod or gun, the 

 general experience in Connecticut is that one must be contented, or, at 

 least, put up with mediocre sport. The commissioners will, I am sure, 

 do all they can,, both in the line of stocking and protecting, but with their 

 present facilities and under existing conditions the results must necessarily 

 be rather unsatisfactory. In one line only are they able to show a great 

 improvement over the former state of things, viz. : the increase of shad. 

 Our retaining ponds will furnish accommodations for eight millions of the 

 young of these fish each season, and in them they will increase in size 

 from the diminutive fry of June to fish from two and a half to five inches 

 long in October, when they are released. These fish, in addition to the fry 

 annually released, cannot fail to produce important results. The record, 

 imperfect as it is, shows, year by year, a very substantial increase in the 

 number of shad taken in Connecticut. In the matter of trout, each appli- 

 cant was supplied in the spring with 4,000 good-sized, lively fry, and the 

 commissioners have also planted this fall as many fingerling trout as they 



