256 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



of larger trout when both have arrived at the yearling stage ; so it is of the utmost 

 importance that young trout, in confinement, have every attention paid to their food 

 and feeding if they are to be grown to large fingerlings. 



It has been noted in this paper that the modern demand in public and private 

 fish establishments is for fingerling or yearling fish and that fry are no longer held 

 in esteem, as formerly, for planting, and while it it true that better results may be 

 obtained from planting the larger fish, there is a misconception in the public mind 

 in regard to the relative value of the two sizes of fish. Fry are planted in the 

 spring when about an inch long and just before or just after the yolk sac is 

 absorbed, and fingerlings are planted in October or November when four or five 

 inches long, after being carried through the fry period in the hatchery, the season of 

 warmer water and the season of infant mortality, so that both are planted under 

 favorable water conditions and of necessity the fingerlings are of greater value than 

 fry in the streams planted, but nine times out of ten, if left to the average applicant, 

 the fry and fingerlings are both improperly planted. Yes, in the case of fry they 

 are improperly planted ninety-nine times out of one hundred, and one per cent is a 

 high estimate of rational planting. The Hudson River was stocked with salmon 

 (Sa/ar) fry alone, with the result that over 300 adult salmon were taken (illegally) in 

 the shad nets in one season. The salmon fry were planted in small streams of the 

 headwaters and there remained for two years before going down to sea as smolts 

 (fingerling salmon), and in two years more the adult fish returned weighing from 

 9 to 15 pounds each, having been subjected to all the dangers to fish life in fresh 

 and salt water, so that it is folly to say that good results cannot be obtained from 

 planting the fry of the trout. 



It is strange, perhaps, but a common objection to the planting of fry in the 

 spring on the part of applicants is because the water is too cold in the streams, for 

 the water in the cans which take the fry from the hatchery to the streams is just as 

 cold if not colder, for almost always ice is used in the cans in transporting both the 

 fry and the fingerlings. Another objection is that the water in the streams is so 

 high that the fry are "washed out" and lost, whatever that may mean, but it is as 

 absurd as the other objection. If fry are properly planted they will not suffer from 

 cold water, they will not be washed out and they will produce good results. 



To be properly planted, fry must be taken to the headwater rivulets tributary to 

 the stream it is wished to stock, and there they must be thinly distributed so that 

 the food supply will not be at once exhausted, as would be the case if the little fish 

 were bunched in one place. In the rivulets the baby trout are removed, compara- 

 tively, from the enemies which would prey upon them in larger waters, and if planted 



