16 
that man was to be used as an instrument to prevent the 
extinction of the species of food fishes in our inland 
waters. Inthe fall of 1875 the first governmental efforts. 
were made to hatch whitefish. The parent fish were 
first obtained, the eggs extracted and fertilized, and it is. 
a fact that almost every egg was safely hatched and the 
young deposited in the waters of Lake Erie. From that 
date to the present time the State, through its efficient 
Commission, has deposited in Lake Erie 400,000,000 of 
young whitefish. Since the spring of 1880 upward of 
200,000,000 of pickerel have been hatched by the Com-. 
mission, and deposited in Ohio waters suitable for 
them; and from the last official report, dated May 
16, 1892, out of four hundred quarts of pickerel spawn 
sixty per cent. was hatched. Not only do people living 
along the lake shore find almost daily supply of food, 
fishes for consumption in a fresh state, but by proper 
methods of preparation and preservation the product of 
the lake is fitted for long continued keeping and trans- 
portation to distant markets where fishing is difficult, 
impracticable or impossible. With able legislation and 
increased assistance of the Fish Commissioners the sup- 
ply of food fishes does not equal the demand, and the 
fisherman’s cry, from shore to shore, is the scarcity of 
favorite fishes, and each year the perfected net appliances 
increase. Closer and closer are the spawning grounds 
limited, deeper and longer are the gill-nets and smaller 
the meshes until whitefish the size of herring are taken 
from the deepest waters. Back in the seventies sturgeon 
were so plentiful and useless that hundreds were daily 
thrown out of the nets back into the water. To-day 
nearly every part of the fish is utilized and the net fisher- ° 
man is fortunate who captures four or five in his daily 
catch. Again the fishculturist is heard from and he 
introduces methods of artificial hatching, and it is esti- 
mated that 80 per cent. of the young sturgeon released 
in the waters live to take care of themselves—so hardy 
