SALE OF 
ARTIFICIALLY REARED TROUT. 
By W. L. GILBERT. 
I have always been greatly interested in the fish and 
game interests of the country, and also in the passage 
and enforcement of all reasonable laws for the protec- 
tion of the same. 
I presume my father did more than any other man in 
Plymouth, and at his own expense, in stocking the public 
waters of that town with black bass and white perch. I 
have on several occasions restocked the only public trout 
stream in Plymouth with trout fry whenever I had a sur- 
plus after stocking my own ponds. 
As only a small portion of the people are interested in 
the fish and game laws, it is always well in framing them 
to guard against the possible danger of having them so 
arbitrary as to interfere with the private rights of the 
people or with their industrial pursuits. We had an ex- 
ample of this nature in Massachusetts. Under the law 
the Fish Commissioners had power to lease the fishing 
rights in any great pond of over twenty acres to private 
parties, and they did so with a large number, thus taking 
away from the people at large the right to fish in any 
leased pond, under a penalty of $20 to $50 for every 
offense. The people stood it for a few years, and in 1884 
they appeared at the State House in force and demanded 
and obtained the repeal of the law, and now the commis- 
sioners have not the power to lease any pond in the 
State. 
The policy of Massachusetts, and also of other States, 
has been to encourage the cultivation of trout and other 
useful fishes as a food product, and it was for this pur- 
pose that the several States and also the United States 
organized the Fish Commissions, and Massachusetts 
passed the law of 1869, the title of which is “An act to 
encourage the cultivation of useful fishes,” by which act 
