50 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



The total of all trespasses, as it should be, is less for 1909 than here- 

 tofore. Fewer violations of the law, with greater activity in the depart- 

 ment to detect offenders, indicates a more wholesome respect for the law 

 and a greater desire to conserve and protect our forests, fish and game. 

 We want to see the time when there will be few or no violations and all 

 people will assist in upholding and enforcing the law. Then we will have 

 birds, fish, game and forests enough to supply all our reasonable needs. 



This department ought to be self-sustaining; not only that, but it 

 should raise, through its instrumentalities in handling the State's business, 

 enough money (beside that required to defray all expenses) to buy all the 

 additional land the State may need ; to care for it ; to protect it ; to pay the 

 taxes and improve it. In other words, we ought to be able to do just what 

 an individual or business corporation, owning the same property for the 

 same purpose, would do in making it self-sustaining; and at the same time 

 keep, preserve and use it for a forest preserve and playground forever. 

 Why not ? The reason for such management and how it should be done 

 will be more fully set forth under the head of " State Forests." 



Hatcheries. 



This year we produced and distributed 530,000,000 fish, which is 

 about five times as many as were distributed in a single year five years 

 ago. In this connection I desire to particularly call the attention of the 

 Legislature to the work of Dr. Gaylord, in charge of the State Cancer 

 Laboratory, Buffalo, N. Y., as to the service he has rendered this depart- 

 ment in his study of diseases of fish at some of our hatcheries and in the 

 United States hatcheries of various other states. The work accomplished 

 by Dr. Gaylord is of great benefit to the State of New York in relation to 

 diseases of fish and points the way to a better construction and manage- 

 ment of fish hatcheries and rearing ponds. Further than that his experi- 

 ments and discoveries will undoubtedly result in great benefit to the whole 

 people when his work is fully completed and his final report made. More 

 than this it may not be proper to state at this time. 



