Commercial Pineries of ti)e Interior 

 Waters of tl)e ^tate. 



THE interior rivers and small lakes of the different States have never 

 been thoroughly investigated to ascertain the capital invested, fisher- 

 men employed, and the value of the product. In the exhaustive canvass 

 made about fifteen years ago of the fisheries of the United States, the value 

 of the product of the interior fisheries of the different States was chiefly an estimate, 

 and it was given at $1,500,000; but subsequently it was believed that the figures 

 should be $5,000,000 annually. It is almost impossible to obtain figures which will 

 cover the actual amount received for all fish sold in any particular State, for while 

 the returns from professional fishermen may be obtained with reasonable accuracy, 

 the returns from desultory fishing in minor waters must remain incomplete. 

 Nearly every trout stream and black bass pond, however remote, furnishes more or 

 less fish which are sold to summer hotels and boarding houses for sums which 

 never will find their way into statistical returns when an attempt is made to find the 

 total value of the fisheries of the State. 



There are some lakes in which valuable food fish are going to waste because no 

 effort is made to catch them. This refers to whitefish in interior waters which have 

 been planted, and where the fish now thrive abundantly, and may be taken under the 

 law if State regulations are complied with. 



In one of the large interior lakes perch fishing in winter has been prosecuted for 

 years, so many that no one can remember to the contrary ; and the sweet little pan 

 fis"h furnished not only food but a fair revenue to those who sought them. The law 

 which forbids fishing through the ice in any waters inhabited by trout closed the 

 winter perch fishing. The trout in this particular lake are lake trout, and perch fishing 

 through the ice could in no way injure the trout if the fishermen desired to obey the 

 law which protects trout of all species through the winter months; but under the pre- 

 tense of fis.hing for yellow perch through the ice certain fishermen have persistently 

 fished for and caught trout until there is something of a sentiment in favor of the 

 present law as being the only means of protecting the trout. Lake trout and yellow 

 perch do not inhabit the same water, and there is no reason why yellow perch should 

 not be taken up to a certain time in the spring if the fishermen would observe the 

 trout law. 

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