66 Tliirly-iiiiilli Ainnia! Merlin;/ 



llic l)culsclicr I'^ischerci X'crciii was organized, and in the 

 same year tliere was formed the Ameriean l^^isli C'nUnrists' 

 .\ss();-i;iti(in, now known as the Ameriean h'isheries Soeiely. 

 This association was praeliealh' founded 1)\' Lisini^ston 

 Stone, ably seconded h}- l\ol)ert Ij. J\oose\eh. In 18/1 the 

 federal Congress created tlie U. S. h'ish Commission, which 

 is still \-ery acti\ely engaged in i'lsh culture and allied opera- 

 tions, its present name being the U. S. Bureau of h'isheries. 

 1die formation of this great establishment was urged by a 

 committee of the American h^ish Culturists' Association, as 

 well as by the Fish Commissioners of New York State, and 

 especially by Robert B. Roosevelt. 



It may be permissible here to note the fact that fish cul- 

 ture \)y the States at first related almost exclusively to the 

 culture of brook trout and Atlantic salmon. The Fish Com- 

 missioners of New York were the first to inaugurate a wider 

 range of activities, including exchanges of eggs with foreign 

 countries. Most of the states, in fact, nearly all the states, 

 ha\e had fish commissions in operation for a long period of 

 years, and the aggregate of work accomplished by the states 

 is enormously large, ddie states have also devoted a great 

 deal of time and care to the study of problems in fish culture, 

 with especial reference to impro\ements in the taking and 

 handling of eggs and the rearing and distribution of young 

 fish of various ages, ddie federal government plants fish and 

 eggs by the billion. Some of the states will undoubtedly 

 soon reach the billion mark in their total of fish distribution. 

 Wonderful im])rovements ha\e been made in the apparatus 

 of fish culture, in the construction of ponds and hatcheries, 

 cars, and in the general management of fish cultural work. 

 There is no doul)t that in most respects the federal govern- 

 ment outranks all other go\ernments in the care and pre- 

 cision attending its labors. 



.\t the same time, every practical fish culturist now present 

 will. T am sure, agree with me that we still lack some things 

 of the utmost importance, h'or example, we know^ only too 

 little al)out the causes and the treatment of the diseases of 



