CALIFORNIA PISH AND GAME. 95 



Joaquin, prevents the passage of the salmon to their former breeding 

 grounds on the upper reaehes of the river. 



The Mereed River will no longer ati'ord a spawning ground for 

 salmon, as a large irrigation project is planned that will hold back the 

 flood waters of the Merced in a lake to be made by the construction of 

 a high dam across the river near Exchequer. Plans had been made 

 for the construction of fishways over the small dams in the Merced 

 River, property of the San Joaquin Light and Power Company, and 

 arrangements made for their construction, but the plan of the large 

 irrigation reservoir makes it impracticable to attempt any further 

 efforts to perpetuate the run of salmon in the Merced River. With the 

 completion of the Kerckhoff dam and the proposed dam at Exchequer, 

 the spawning grounds for salmon on the San Joaquin River and its 

 tributaries are practicallj^ all cut off from the breeding salmon. Dur- 

 ing seasons of normal rainfall a few salmon will probably spawn near 

 Friants, below power house No. 4 of the San Joaquin Light and Power 

 Company. This area is very small and would not have any effect in 

 keeping up the run of salmon in the river. 



An experimental salmon-culture station was established on the San 

 Joaquin River in 1921, with the object in view of determining what 

 the expense would be of collecting the eggs near Friants in the fall and 

 transporting them to the hatchery on Willow Creek, a distance of about 

 thirty-five miles, hatching the eggs and rearing the fry in ponds, the 

 fry to be held in the ponds until the following fall, then conveying 

 them by auto truck to the river, below the Kerckhoff dam. 



This plan proved impractical, owing to the inaccessible location of 

 the site during the winter months and the great distance over rough 

 roads which the green eggs would have to be carried in the fall. Plans 

 are being made for the construction of a salmon-egg collecting station 

 and hatchery on the San Joaquin River near Friants. This station will 

 have to be constructed by the San Joaquin Light and Power Company, 

 whose operations on the San Joaquin River have broken up the salmon 

 run by the construction of high dams and the diversion of the water 

 through a tunnel 17,000 feet long, through which the entire flow of the 

 river passes during the summer months, leaving the bed of the San 

 Joaquin River dry for a distance of twelve miles during the late 

 summer and fall. 



CONCLUSION. 



This history should demonstrate that from small beginnings fishcul- 

 tural operations have grown until California is a leader among the 

 states in its output of trout and salmon. At the present time the state 

 owns and operates thirty hatcheries and egg-collecting stations. Of 

 this number, seven have been built wdthin the last seven years. Each 

 of the hatcheries is fully equipped and the largest one has a capacity 

 of about 40,000,000 trout and salmon per year. Two railroad cars spe- 

 cially fitted for the transportation of the eggs and fry are maintained 

 and operated to distribute the output. At several of the hatcheries 

 auto trucks are utilized for short hauls to and from the railroad 

 station, and in some cases for planting. In the maintenance of these 

 hatcheries and egg-collecting stations, it is necessary to employ during 

 the sunnner season nearly sixty men. 



