American Fisheries Society 165 



fish, to gather them, and our fish may run anywhere from one to 

 two inches in length. The rapid increase each month makes 

 the difference in size at a wonderful variance. It is almost im- 

 possible to give the people in Washington with whom wo have 

 to deal, a correct idea as to the size by number. For instance, a 

 number one black bass would technically be one inch, but under 

 the ruling it remains a number one bass at two inches. Xow a 

 number one bass at one inch is a very minute creature, and a 

 number one bass at two inches will weigh four or five times as 

 much as number one. We may possibly put up the first catch of 

 black bass, 300 or 400 to a can, while if they are two inches long 

 150 will be all that the can will hold. So that in getting our or- 

 ders from Washington to distribute 10,000 fish in a carload, we 

 are in trouble. Last week I had an order from Washington to 

 put 10,000 black bass in a car, and all we could put in was 3,500, 

 because the fish had increased in size so rapidly. 



I would suggest that the numbers instead of running l)y the 

 inches, run, for instance one inch, number one ; one and one- 

 quarter inch, numljer one a : one and one half inch to one and 

 three quarters, number one 1) ; and so on up. 



I make that suggestion to fit the conditions present in Illi- 

 nois. I am not here to dictate what ought to be done for differ- 

 ent stations or places. I am talking about the conditions that 

 exist in the warm water of the state of Illinois. That would be 

 my suggestion. 



Mr. A. G. Keesecker, Erwin, Tenn., (Supt. Bureau of Fish- 

 eries Station) : I would like to say that my principal objection 

 to the present system is that the number is taken from the larg- 

 est size of fish. For instance, the number two is a fish from one 

 to two inches long. 



Mr. Meehan : Xo, number two is over two inches long and 

 less than three. 



Mr. Keesecker : Then why not make this run the other way 

 and instead of making that number the limit of the size make it 

 the medium ? The gentlemen that are raising trout will under- 

 stand that trout vary in size and length very much, and unless 

 you keep grading them very often there will be a variance in size, 

 and my way of numbering w^ould be to strike the average size 



