234 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



was authorized and directed to make a biological survey of the waters 

 of Lake George for the purpose of determining the most practical 

 methods of increasing fish production. For the purpose of carrying 

 out the provisions of this act, the sum of 82,000 was appropriated. 

 The Commission's report for 1920 concerning " Investigations in 

 Fish Culture," says : " It seems strange that, notwithstanding the 

 fact that the United States leads all other countries in the production 

 of fish, and that the work has been going on now for over sixty 

 years, there are a great many problems which no one in this or other 

 countries is able to solve or even has attempted to solve. There is 

 no up-to-date fish pathologist in this countr\-. No one knows posi- 

 tively why it is impossible to produce under given conditions at one 

 hatchery the same amount of fish as it is possible to produce under 

 apparently similar conditions at another hatcher}-. It is possible to 

 go on and enumerate many other -phases of fish cultural problems 

 which often enter into the work of the hatcheries and which are 

 factors in the results obtained from planting fish in streams, ponds 

 and lakes. 



" During the past year this Commission has undertaken an investi- 

 gation the nature of which differs from any ever before undertaken, 

 in the biological survey of Lake George. In this work special in- 

 vestigations as to the relations of plant growth to fish food were 

 made which have suggested the importance of more extended investi- 

 gations along similar lines in other ponds and lakes where the fish 

 cultural results have not been as satisfactory as could be desired." 



In his report on the streams in Tompkins County Embody ('22) 

 included some consideration of the principal lakes and ponds, to 

 which later reference is made. This appears to be the first attention 

 of the kind given to standing bodies of water by the Conservation 

 Commission for many years. In 1922 a report upon the survey of 

 Lake George was published by the Conservation Commission T Need- 

 ham and others, '22). In the introduction Mr. Titcomb says: 

 "Although the sur\'ey of necessity covered but a brief period of the 

 summer months, it is probably the first and most comprehensive one 

 of its kind ever made, embodying so many angles of investigation 

 and having as its ultimate object the important economic problem 

 of determining the most practical methods of increasing fish pro- 

 duction." 



Dr. Needham's report is not only comprehensive but delightfulK 

 comprehensible, being written in a style easily read and understood 

 by the general reader. It is furthermore illustrated by cuts and dia- 

 grams easily followed by the lay mind. His report comprises the 

 subjects of hydrography and environment, vegetation • — including 

 shore vegetation and free-floating microscopic vegetation. — the turn- 

 over of the lake's vegetation into fish food, and fishes. A summary 

 and recommendations are also given. 



]Mr. Juday's report comprises limnological obser\"ations on Lake 

 George. It covers essentially similar work as was carried on in the 

 Finger Lakes : temperature of the water, quantity of dissolved oxygen 



