FISHERIES, GAME AM) FORESTS. 73 



During the coming year I hope to receive permission from the Commissioner- to 

 place a hot-water heater in this hatchery. I recommend it on the line of economy and 

 better results. A coal stove cannot be made to heat a large hatching room so that the 

 employes can work over a hatching trough, with their hands continually in the water, 

 without suffering. Our experiment, or trial, with the hot-water heater in the Caledonia 

 Hatchery has demonstrated it to be the most desirable way of heating our hatcheries. 



The Caledonia Hatchery, the oldest in the State, is under the very efficient manage- 

 ment of Foreman Frank Redband. Mr. Redband was for years Assistant Superin- 

 tendent under Monroe A. Green, and is well qualified to direct in all of the different 

 kinds of work and fish hatching done at this hatchery. The men stationed there 

 are at the proper season sent to the Great Lakes after lake trout and whitefish eggs ; 

 to Chautauqua Lake collecting and hatching the mascalonge eggs ; to Oneida Lake 

 and other points collecting and hatching pike-perch eggs, and also in collecting the 

 black bass and experimenting with the artificial hatching of the same. 



The grounds connected with this hatchery are very extensive, and during the sum- 

 mer season it employs at least two or three men at work keeping them in proper condi- 

 tion. During the past summer some very unsightly rocky knolls have been levelled 

 off, and the grounds facing the public highway have been graded ; walks have been 

 laid, and a driveway into the hatchery grounds has been macadamized and put in good 

 condition. A small piece of swamp land belonging to the State is located very near 

 the hatchery, all the underbrush and old stumps have been removed, and wherever 

 it was practicable, the grounds were leveled off and dressed with good, rich earth, 

 and converted into lawns. 



On the stream, just below the hatchery, a strong stone dam has been put in to re- 

 place a decayed wooden structure, so that we now have a large natural pond in the 

 stream which can be controlled by gates and screens so that no fish can escape, and 

 in my opinion the fish will thrive and do much better than if confined in small 

 breeding ponds. This dam also furnished us with a head of water so that we were able 

 to construct a new series of rearing ponds. This enlarges the capacity of the hatchery, 

 and makes it possible for us to carry from one to two hundred thousand yearlings. 



In the hatching room of the hatchery many needed improvements have been made. 

 This room has always had a barnlike appearance, never having been ceiled, and where 

 wainscoated on the sides had never been painted. This has all been seen to, and, with 

 the addition of the hot-water heater, makes the hatching room one of the finest in the 

 country. I wish again to refer to the hot-water heater, as I think it is the true way 

 of heating the State hatcheries. During former years this hatcherv has been heated 

 with coal stoves. In the vicinity of the stove during a cold da}-, the heat was 



