T^f Game Breeder 



VOLUME vn 



JULY, t9i5 

 SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER 4 



More Fish. 



The more game movement includes 

 game fish of course. The truth of the 

 matter is the right to produce game fish 

 for profit is a httle in advance of the right 

 to restore quail on toast and other game 

 bird dishes in some of the states. Some 

 of our readers make ten thousand a year 

 or more in their game fish industry and 

 not many of them yet do as well with 

 game, big or small. 



Mr. C. H. Townsend, Director of the 

 New York Aquarium, discusses the pri- 

 vate fish pond as a neglected resource in 

 Forest and Stream. He says : 



It is possible for the private citizen to obtain 

 pond fishes for breeding purposes, but he needs 

 assistance and direction. Object lessons on 

 approved methods of fish culture could be 

 obtained by visiting public hatcheries, but this 

 is not likely to be undertaken. It' would be 

 advantageous to the country if state fish com- 

 missions generally could supply the coarser 

 fishes for cultivation in private waters and 

 furnish the public free information as to the 

 methods to be followed. 



We should not rest content with the mere 

 fact that such information exists in public 

 documents. The edition of state documents 

 are neither large nor well distributed, and 

 rural populations may remain unaware that 

 useful fishery information may be had for the 

 asking. State fish commissions should not only 

 prepare inexpensive pamphlets on the cultiva- 

 tion of common fishes, but see that they reach 

 many communities and be announced and re- 

 viewed by the rural press everywhere. Model 

 ponds distributed about the state for demon- 

 strative work would, of course, be educational, 

 like agricultural colleges and state experiment 

 farms. I am not prepared to set forth the best 

 means of doing this work, perhaps no two 

 states would undertake it the same way. 



Kansas issued a series of illustrated 

 bulletins on Pond Fish Culture and we 

 understand Massachusetts has this work 

 started. It is quite as important to have 

 more fish and fewer fish laws as it is to 

 have more game and fewer g'ame laws. 

 We are glad to see our good neighbor, 



Forest and Stream, gettting interested in 

 more fish. 



More Fish Raising and Less Fish 

 Hatching. 



Mr. Townsend well points out that 

 the number of fish raised is badly out 

 of proportion to the number of fry pro- 

 duced : 



I am convinced that some of the energy put 

 into the production of fry is misdirected. The 

 output is amazing. Practically all of it is hur- 

 ried into the nearest river and none of it 

 raised. We are all doing about the same thing 

 and have settled into the rut of fish hatching 

 in hatchery buildings. No one is doing any- 

 thing new except as connected with the com- 

 petition for increased output. 



Having practiced these wholesale methods 

 for two or three decades, let us now consideir 

 whether we might not profit by a little less fish 

 hatching and a little more fish raising. Does 

 salvation lie only in a multiplicity of expensive 

 Federal and state hatcheries ? If our_ fishery 

 establishments were equipped to raise and 

 market one per cent, of the fry now being 

 hatched and liberated, might not the quantity 

 of food thus produced exceed that which 

 eventually reaches market by way of the public 

 waters? Let us simplify our art and teach it 

 to the people, for they can surely help in the 

 production of fish food. 



The object of the Game Conservation 

 Society and its publication, The Game 

 Breeder, always has been to teach the 

 people the art of profitable game and 

 game fish production' and incidentally to 

 teach the game officers not to arrest them 

 on account of their industry. We have 

 labored to make it impossible for such ab- 

 surd arrests and we have helped to have 

 many absurd crimes removed from the 

 statutes. It is gratifying to observe that 

 the state game departments, for the most 

 part, now realize that it would be an easy 

 matter for all of the people to have cheap 

 game and cheap fish, provided they can 

 interest the people in producing them 

 profitably. Syndicates of sportsmen using 



