6 
It would seem, however, when we come to consider the 
status of the work of our different Commissions, and the 
progress they have made in the propagation of commercial 
fish, that the time has now come when Commissions should, 
in connection with their other work, take up the equally 
important matter of investigation into the food of the 
fishes, and should direct their attention to this subject, 
which is of the highest importance to the success of all fish- 
cultural work. 
While something has already been done in this direction 
in this country, the work has been of a rather desultory 
and fugitive character, and has not been carried out upon 
a well-considered plan. We grant that itis important that 
the fishculturist should hatch fish, and hatch them in large 
numbers, but is it not of equal importance that he should 
know the character and amount of the food of young fish 
contained in the waters in which they are put? Is it not 
of greatest consequence that he should know whether this 
food abounds more plentifully in one locality, or at one 
season of the year than at another? Is it not material to 
the success of his work that the fishculturist should know 
whether his ‘‘ presumption”? that the food of the young 
fish is to be found plentifully upon the natural spawning 
beds should be verified, and if it is not so, where it may be 
found in greatest abundance? This being admitted, is it 
not essential that he should know the precise localities of 
every Spawning bed of the commercial fish beyond a doubt ? 
In other words, our information should not depend upon 
uncertain information that is based upon the local tradi- 
tions of practical fishermen as to the location of spawning 
beds. While such information may be sufficiently accur- 
ate for the fisherman’s purpose, it may be absolutely worth- 
less to the fishculturist in determining their exact location. 
In the trial of a suit at law, secondary or hearsay evidence 
is never admissible to determine a fact, and yet the admis- 
sion of such evidence in a law suit would not be productive 
