/O REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



brown trout, 185,000 lake trout, 2,500 yearlings, and 100 large brook trout weighing 

 from one to two-and-a-half pounds each, have been liberated from this hatchery. 



Many complaints have reached my ear in regard to the large numbers of brook 

 trout taken by Foreman Marks and his assistants from the waters adjacent to the 

 hatchery, and these complaints say they are taken out for the supposed purpose of 

 spawning, or to put in the ponds at the hatchery. Foreman Marks tells me, and I 

 have every reason to believe him, that for the last two or three years he has not taken 

 over from three to five hundred trout of all sizes in any one year from the near-by or 

 any other waters for his ponds or any other purpose. During the last year I have 

 given Mr. Marks instructions to take only just enough spawning fish to keep his 

 numbers in his breeding ponds up to the standard. What few fish he takes from these 

 waters are only for the public good. They are returned tenfold in fry and yearlings. 

 The origin of many of these complaints is not worth noticing. Many arise from the 

 fact that a short distance above the hatchery in what is called the Forge Pond, or First 

 Lake, Foreman Marks keeps one or two trap nets set during the summer months. 

 These nets are set for the purpose of catching such fish as are commonly called worth- 

 less, as sunfish and bullheads. These are used as fish food, ground up and fed to his 

 breeding fish in his ponds at the hatchery. As a matter of fact no trout, during the 

 summer months, are found in the waters where these nets are operated, and it is only 

 during a cool snap that any trout find their way into them. 



At the Beaver Kill Hatchery, situate at Rockland, in Sullivan county, everything 

 has been done towards successful work that the location of the hatchery would permit. 

 H. E. Annin has been foreman of this hatchery ever since he took charge, which 

 was about the time it was completed. He has had great difficulties to contend with ; 

 286,000 brook trout fry, 25,000 brown trout fry, 130,000 lake trout fry, were distributed 

 from this hatchery during the past season. These numbers seem very small. Up to 

 the first of April we had every reason to believe that this hatchery would turn out 

 nearly a million of fish of all kinds, but about the first of April occurred one of the 

 worst freshets that had visited that section in twenty-five or thirty years, and the 

 Beaver Kill River, from which the hatchery takes its water supply, rose beyond all 

 -precedent, so that the hatchery was completely surrounded. The troughs were filled 

 nearly full with sediment, so that it took a full week for Foreman Annin and his 

 assistants to separate the eggs and fry from the mass of dirt. This is liable to occur 

 at any time, and it is with great reluctance that I send or gather any eggs for hatching 

 to this hatchery. It is simply impracticable to build any breeding ponds at this 

 hatchery. During the spring they would be in danger of freshets, and the lay of the 

 land is such that it would be almost impossible to guard against it. During the 



