FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 17 



State waters two carloads of fingerling land-locked salmon, contributed by the United 

 States Fish Commission, without losing a fish, except such as were caught in the 

 dippers when the men were working the cans in the night. Both carloads were on 

 the road over 48 hours. 



Almost since the date of the creation of the New York Fish Commission, in 1868, 

 it has been dependent in great degree upon the waters of the Great Lakes for a supply 

 of lake trout and other fish eggs. In recent years the supply of eggs from this source 

 has been growing gradually less, and it is a matter of serious consideration where we 

 shall look for a supply of eggs of the food or commercial fishes. With our increasing 

 population and the growing interest taken in the hook-and-line fishes, it is also a 

 serious matter to obtain a sufficient quantity of the eggs of such fishes to supply the 

 demand for young fish for distribution in State waters. The demand each year is 

 several times greater than the supply. The hatcheries of the State have at best but 

 limited facilities for keeping stock fish ; and the building of stock ponds, and the food 

 and labor required to maintain the stock fish in them amounts to a considerable sum 

 each year. This will be augmented when the proposed rearing ponds for fry are con- 

 structed, and we must look elsewhere for a considerable part of the eggs to keep the 

 hatcheries in operation up to their capacity. 



We would recommend as a public necessity that two bodies of water in the Adiron- 

 dack region, to be selected by the Commission, be set aside by law to be controlled 

 by the Commission and used as stock waters to supply eggs of lake trout and other 

 fish for public waters of the State. For this purpose the waters would be thoroughly 

 stocked with the species of fish most in demand and maintained as natural stock 

 ponds. It would not be necessary to erect hatcheries on the shores of, these stock 

 waters or disfigure them in any way, as the eggs would be taken at the spawning 

 season and conveyed to State hatcheries for development. 



It is the desire of the Commission to greatly increase the output of commercial or 

 so-called food fishes. Last year the Commission planted 41,205,000 pike-perch fry 

 (also called wall-eyed pike), one of the best of table fishes, and hook-and-line fish as 

 well; 24,080,000 white fish, and 18,000,000 ciscoes. These are the very choicest 

 of food fishes, but the annual output should be doubled or trebled, and we would 

 recommend a special appropriation of $25,000 to be used for the purchase of suitable 

 lands (and water, if necessary), and to erect buildings in such place or places as may 

 be selected by the Commission for the propagation of pike-perch, white fish, ciscoes, 

 black bass, etc. 



The initial experiments conducted last year in hatching black bass artificially, con- 

 vinced the Commissioners that it may be quite possible to hatch black bass in large 

 quantities and thus supply the demand for this excellent fish, which each year is far in 



