REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. at 
ADDITIONAL FISH-CULTURAL STATIONS. 
New York.—In response to a resolution of the United States Senate 
of December 18, 1890, directing the U. 8. Fish Commissioner to report to 
itupon the desirability of the Government’s establishing a fish-hatchery 
in northern New York, near the St. Lawrence River, the following com- 
munication was addressed to the President of the Senate: 
U. 8. CoMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 
Washington, D. C., January 26, 1591. 
Str: In obedience to Senate resolution of December 18, 1890, directing the U. S. 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries to report to the Senate as to the desirability of 
the establishment of a fish-hatchery in northern New York, near the St. Lawrence 
River, I have the honor to report as follows: 
The basin of the St. Lawrence, including Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain and 
the innumerable smaller lakes and tributary streams which drain into these, com- 
prises fully one-half of the area of the State of New York, about one-fourth of the 
State of Vermont, and on the Canadian side a more considerable drainage area. 
In Lake Ontario whitefish were formerly very abundant. The value of this fishery 
has declined year by year, and at present the production is relatively insignificant 
compared with the whitefish fisheries of Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan. 
In the waters referred to a like decline was in progress, but those who were inter- 
ested in those fisheries were prompt to recognize the necessity of legislation to 
restrain and regulate the methods and apparatus and seasons of capture. 
Artificial propagation was also systematically resorted to to supplement and rein- 
force natural reproduction, and whitefish hatcheries were established by the States 
of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin and by the Canadian Government. Entering the 
field at a later date, the U. S. Commission has established stations for the collection 
and hatching of whitefish at Alpena, Mich., Duluth, Minn., and Put-in Bay, Ohio. 
The result of the codperative fish-culture work by the Canadian, State, and United 
States Fish Commissions has been not only to arrest the alarming decline that was in 
progress, but to determine a marked increase in the catch of whitefish in those 
waters in which fish-cultural work has been carried on. 
The marked contrast between the present conditions of the whitefish fisheries of 
Lake Erie and Lake Ontario sharply defines and emphasizes the necessity of artifi- 
cial propagation as a means of maintaining and improving our important commer- 
cial fisheries and of creating such in waters where they have not before existed. 
We can not afford to neglect so important an economic resouree—one which gives 
such substantial and valuable returns for moderate expenditures. = 
We can not expect individual enterprise to undertake such work in public waters 
in the expectation of private gain. Men, however public-spirited, will not sow the 
seed of a harvest which all men may gather. Our lakes and rivers and coast waters 
must be farmed by the Government for the general use and under such regulations 
as will establish and maintain the largest production. 
Another important commercial species which formerly existed in Lake Ontario in 
marvelous abundance, but.which is now so rare as to be an object of envious interest 
when seen, is the Atlantic salmon. Sixty years ago each season it ascended the St. 
Lawrence in vast numbers and swarmed in all its tributaries. Following both shores 
_ of Lake Ontario it ascended all the smaller streams which fall into it and which 
afford suitable spawning-grounds for the mature fish and favor able nurseries for the 
fry during their period of river life. 
The following extract from the annual report of the department of marine and 
fisheries of Canada for the year ending June 30, 1869, will be instructive as well as 
suggestive. 
