TROUT PROPAGATION 



In waters that do not contain brook trout the bull- 

 head is a most desirable food-fish, and it grows to good 

 size and is always in demand. The waters of the State 

 furnish about 200,000 pounds of bullheads annually, 

 so far as returns have been obtained, more than of any 

 other fish except the shad. 



The bullhead is a prolific fish and broods its young, 

 and in trout-waters where it is not sought as food it 

 has only to breed and multiply, barring such casualties 

 as all fish are subject to in a state of nature. 



In trout-waters such as I have mentioned, where 

 bullheads have driven the trout to the wall, if fisher- 

 men would devote a little time to catching bullheads 

 there would be fewer to devour the spawn of trout and 

 consume their food. There is another remedy for this 

 condition of things, but it is one that can be applied 

 only by the Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission 

 or its agents. 



Every little while it is discovered by someone that 

 trout contain ova in the summer, and there is a de- 

 mand that the closed season be shortened. The last 

 complaint of this sort that I have noticed was printed 

 in a paper in the northern part of the State. The 

 writer of the complaint found ripe eggs in some trout 

 he caught in August, and he desired that the law 

 should close the fishing on and after August 1st. This 

 gentleman simply made the mistake that others have 

 made, for the eggs were not ripe. If he had examined 

 trout in June or before, he would have found spawn 



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