FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 53 



Under the provisions of law for the erection of a hatchery in Delaware county, 

 the Commission has selected a site on the Ulster and Delaware Railroad, near Hobart 

 Station. This was surveyed by the State Engineer's Department. The flow of 

 water is sufficient to hatch 20,000,000 of trout eggs, summer temperature forty 

 six. The Commission examined the stream formed by this spring at various times 

 during the summer, and measurements were made when the water was lowest in the 

 streams in Delaware, Sullivan and adjoining counties. The site is a most advanta- 

 geous one for various reasons. The water is pure and there is no opportunity for 

 freshets to flood the rearing ponds or affect the hatchery troughs. It is near a line 

 of railway connecting the Delaware and Hudson system with the West Shore 

 Railroad, and in the heart of a region celebrated for its trout streams, and is a 

 resort for thousands from the cities. 



The Commission also selected a site for rearing ponds near Lime Lake, in 

 Cattaraugus county. Here, too, we found an abundance of pure spring water 

 conveniently located near a line of railway. 



The water was extremely low throughout the State during the past summer, 

 some streams drying up that were never known to dry before. In consequence of 

 the drought the newspapers contained alarming statements that millions of trout had 

 been destroyed. This I do not believe to be well founded. Employees of the 

 Commission, sent out to rescue fish that might be stranded in pools, did rescue 

 a number, but upon questioning them I find that it is their opinion that the fish 

 would not have suffered had they remained in the pools, as, in every instance, they 

 had selected some place where springs came in from the bottom, and they would 

 have survived, in all probability, had they not been rescued. 



The hatchery to suffer most, perhaps, was Caledonia. Before the droughc was at 

 its worst, the Commission secured an option for $300 on a driven well which flowed 

 eight inches of spring water, temperature forty-nine, into the stream above the 

 hatchery, and I have no doubt that this saved many of the fish in the rearing ponds 

 and boxes. 



The United States Fish Commission has been very liberal in its allotments of fish 

 fry and eggs to this Commission and to the waters of the State, as shown in the 

 summary, and I desire to record here that from the creation of this Commission, 

 down to the present year, the United States Fish Commission has furnished for the 

 Hudson River alone the enormous number of 94,444,000 young shad. As the 

 contributions from the National Commission exceed double the number of fry 

 obtained from the river itself, the State is largely indebted to these contributions 

 for the present supply of shad in the river, which yields annually shad to the value 

 of about $180,000 at the nets. 



