THE POLICY OF CEDING THE CONTROL OF THE 
GREAT LAKES FROM STATE TO 
NATIONAL SUPERVISION. 
BYBNER. €. D. JOSEY N. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen :—When I was called upon by 
our secretary some months ago to write something upon the 
policy of ceding to the federal government the control of the 
Great Lakes, I gladly assented, but according to my usual cus- 
tom, put off the task until the last minute, and now I must con- 
fess that I have not written a paper, so must speak from. notes 
written since I came here. 
Until a few years ago, Michigan was engaged in raising and 
planting whitefish in the lake waters which well nigh surround 
her. It is safe to say that in this work she was very successful 
under the circumstances. But after a while we realized that the 
efforts of a single state, no matter how well directed, were 
wholly inadequate to meet the demands and accomplish practical 
results ; that unless the work was systematically done all along 
the Great Lake chain, the work of one state alone would be of 
very little avail. So an agreement was made with the proper 
representatives of the federal government, whereby the federal 
officers took charge of our whitefish hatching stations, collected 
spawn of whitefish, lake trout, and wall-eyed pike from Michi- 
gan waters, and returned 75 per cent. of the product of that 
spawn to the lake waters bordering on the state. From that time 
on Michigan has had planted in the waters surrounding her, 
from 50,000,000 to 250,000,000 whitefish and other fry every 
year since, at a cost to her of, perhaps, $300 or $400 per annum. 
At the present time it may be said that probably nearly all 
of the successful work in planting food fishes in the chain of 
lakes, is done by the United States government. That it has 
been successful is beyond a doubt. But the wltimate results will 
in a great measure depend upon proper protection to that work 
which the federal government is not now in a position to give. 
Years ago in many places where whitefish were abundant, 
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