43 



If the output is for commercial purposes some fifteen or twenty nursery 

 ponds or pools will be needed. These should be 8x:iOx:2 feet deep, with con- 

 crete sides and bottoms. The drainaf^-e should be perfect allowing- them to 

 be cleaned at all times. The water supplj'inf^ these ponds should be carried 

 by piping- and each pool provided with a separate inlet and outlet. The re- 

 sult of various experiments made with black bass shows that no young should 

 be transferred to nursery pools under three-fourths to one inch long as they 

 can then take small particle of food prepared or collected for them. Should 

 the brood ponds be well supplied with natural food the young fish should .re- 

 main until they can readily take prepared food and small minnows. The 

 best food for most tisli is the flesh of any fish so that it is fresh. 



My method of preparation is as follows: A white pine chopping block two 

 inches thick as larg'e as desired, a sharp biitcher knife, a piece of metal sheet 

 with perforations l-3;3 of an inch and a glass or porcelain bowl are the articles 

 rec^uired for the work. The tails of crawfish are skinned and the flesh of the 

 other fish skinned and boned, then chopped with the knife upon the board, 

 keeping- knife and board wet it can be chopped very fine and screened through 

 the metal sheet into the bowl and thinned to the consistency of cream with 

 water. This is fed to the young- fish once a day or oftener if necessary. 



The method of transferring young fish from brood ponds I described at 

 some length at our meeting last year. 



Chicago, Feb. 7, 190.5. 

 Mr. S. P. BaHlctt. Sccret<try Board of Fish Commmissioners, Qiiincy, III. 



Dear Sik — I beg leave to acknowledge receipt of your favor of Feb. 3d, and 

 to express my regret that absence from the city has delayed a reply to your 

 first letter. 



This company is so largely interested in. and in siich close sympathy with 

 the woi-k of the Fish Commission, that it is a pleasure to be able to co()perate 

 with you in your arduovis duties, and will at any time be g-lad to furnish any 

 information in its possession that will facilitate your very valuable work. 



So far as we have been able to ascertain, it is not the custom of the fish 

 dealers, g-enerally, to keep a record of their purchases and sales of difl'erent 

 varieties of fish, and there is a manifest and, perhaps, a natural reluctance to 

 f varnish information as to the volume of business they transact; but. as nearly 

 as can be estimated from the data we have been able to collect, the sales of 

 fish bj' wholesale dealers in the city of Chicago amount to about $5,000,000.00 

 annually. 



The fiscal j'ear of this company ends with April 30th and as it may be of 

 value to yo\i for purposes of comparison and as a basis on which to estimate 

 the business transacted, to have a summary of fish handled in Chicago by 

 this company, for the year ending April 30th. 1904. I enclose you a copy of 

 same. 



I am much interested in the subject of uniform legislation pertaining- to 

 fishery laws, and should be pleased to take up that question with the mem- 

 bers of your commission at any time that it might be convenient to you. 

 Cannot something be done to Ijring- about united action on that si;bject on 

 the part of the Fish Commissioners of the several states bordering on the 

 Great Lakes, and the Fisheries Department of Ontario? 



Having this in mind. I wrote in December to Mr. X. H. Cohen, president of 

 your commission, asking if he would not favor me with a call on his next 

 visit to the city, and received a reply stating that he expected to be in Chicago 

 shortly after the first of the year; but I assume he has been too busj- to make 

 the expected visit. 



Yours verj' truly, 



Wm. F. Cochkax. 

 Manager Legal Department. 



