BroTvn. — Adjustment of Environment vs. Stocking. 145 



and that we should work toward that end; but the probability would be that 

 we might never reach our objective. As said in my paper just read, our 

 ultimate object should be to learn how to develop, from any starting point, 

 the ideal body of water whereon the angler shall be the only limiting factor. 

 Mr. C. O. Hayford, Hackettstown, N. J. : I think we are very fortu- 

 nate in having Mr. Brown give us this paper. I have known him for a num 

 ber of years. Up where he comes from they have a very large lake and 

 from the time he was a boy he has had a wonderful chance to observe 

 the fish life in that body of water. He became interested in this subject, as 

 few boys do; it has been a hobby with him from the start. He informed me 

 the other night that he was going much further with his studies. It is 

 remarkable the extent to which he has taken the time to count and study 

 the fish nests, and do many of the things which he has discussed with 

 me. I hope Mr. Brown will continue along this line and later give us a 

 further account of any developments in the valuable work that he is carrying 

 on. 



Dr. E. E. Prince, Ottawa, Canada : I would like to say one word in 

 commendation of this paper. It seems to me to be an admirable supplement 

 to Dr. Birge's paper of yesterday, because after all, when we come down 

 to these questions of adjustment, we must know the chemical and biological 

 factors that lie at the bottom of it all. As Mr. Brown has said, there are 

 many factors to be considered, none of which j^ou can ignore. There is 

 especially the question of new diseases, new troubles that arise from our 

 artificial adjustments; because after all we are aiming at keeping up the 

 proper natural balance of factors — a very ideal condition of things. While 

 Mr. Brown's paper is highly theoretical in its character, it is not entirely 

 so; there is a basis of fact there. I have often thought that in surmounting 

 the difficulties which arise from over-fishing and from changed ecological 

 conditions, the ideal to aim at is not always that of simply making a certain 

 body of water self-producing or self-reproducing. I call to mind certain 

 bass lakes in Canada and one or two very important brook trout waters 

 which are well stocked with fish, but the yoimg fish are reared in other waters 

 |.and brought there to grow to maturity. Let me illustrate : We had a bass 

 jnd in Ontario in which we placed a great number of parent fish just 

 ^.before the spawning time. They nested there, and the young hatched out. 

 I We immediately removed all the parent bass and left the young in this 

 ■admirable pond, which was well supplied with the natural food. On some 

 of my visits to that nursery I found the pond actually black with young 

 [bass. Now, the parents were put into the main lake, where they were 

 'accessible to the angler. When the young bass were two or three inches 

 in length, then we transferred them to the open waters. It was a solution 

 of the problem of keeping up the supply of fish where it is a very difficult 

 thing to balance all the ecological conditions for parents as well as fry 

 in a large open lake. Similarly brook trout were reared in a stream and 

 subsequently planted in another region, but it was found especially suc- 

 cessful with black bass. The angler got a much better supply of fish through 

 the use of this method of providing a nursery separate from the fishing 

 waters. I wish personally to thank Mr. Brown for his admirable paper. 



