FISH-CULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE UNITED STATES BUREAU 



OF FISHERIES." 



J* 



By JOHN W. TITCOMB, 

 Assistant in Charge oj the Division oj Fish Culture. 



RESOURCES OF THE BUREAU. 



• 



The fish-cultural work of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, adminis- 

 tered from headquarters at Washington through the Division of Fish Culture, 

 is conducted by means of numerous hatching stations located in various parts 

 of the country, including Alaska. There are thirty-two such stations recognized 

 for administrative purposes. Auxiliary to these are numerous field stations, 

 some of them equipped as hatcheries and in operation throughout the year, 

 others used only during the spawning season of the fishes they are concerned 

 with. The land owned by the Bureau at its fish-cultural stations has an aggre- 

 gate area of 12,000 acres, valued at $225,000. The improvements on this land 

 in buildings, ponds, and special equipment represent an investment of about 

 $1 ,000,000. The Division of Fish Culture has 225 civil-service employees, whose 

 salaries aggregate approximately $200,000; while there is an annual appropria- 

 tion of $275,000 for the maintenance and operation of stations, including the 

 employment of temporary laborers and assistants in fish-cultural work. 



It will be my endeavor to allude to some of the more important phases of 

 the fish-cultural work which these resources make possible, and to explain more 

 fully than would otherwise be permissible features of the work in which recent 

 changes in methods or equipment have not heretofore been so fully illustrated 

 or described. 



EXTENT AND GENERAL METHODS OF THE WORK. 



During the fiscal year 1908 the Bureau distributed fish and eggs to the 

 number of 2,871,456,280. The table accompanying gives an idea of the extent 

 of the work for a series of years. 



oThis paper as read before the International Fishery Congress was illustrated by lantern slides, to 

 supply the absence of which in publication the te.xt has been amplified. 



699 



