T he Game Breeder 



VOLUME XIV 



OCTOBER, I9J8 

 Co} 

 SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER J 



Fisheries Society Meeting. 



The annual meeting of the American 

 Fisheries Society, held at the Waldorf- 

 Astoria Hotel, New York, was well at- 

 tended. Many people, skilled in the 

 propagation of fish, listened for three 

 days to the reading of papers on various 

 subjects connected with the industry and 

 discussed the problems advanced by the 

 writers. 



The Effect of Oils on Brook Trout. 



Mr. Adrian Thomas, of Virginia, read 

 a paper on the effect of certain oils, tars 

 and creosote on the fish. He claimed 

 that the automobile is responsible for 

 some of the depreciation of trout.. The 

 good roads made by macadamizing pre- 

 vented the rain water from soaking into 

 the ground and the oil and creosote are 

 washed into the adjacent streams, kill- 

 ing the fish or driving them away. 



Experiments had proved that tar is 

 very toxic when drained from the roads. 

 Water-gas tar killed fish in thirty hours 

 and coal tar in twenty hours. The sul- 

 phite liquor which flows from paper 

 mills drives fish from streams. 



Important Paper on Pollution. 



Henry B. Ward read a paper on the 

 "Elimination of Stream Pollution in 

 New York State." The greatest menace 

 to the fresh water industry, Mr. Ward 

 said, is the poisoning of streams by city 

 sewage and the drainage from manufac- 

 turing plants.. The greatest loss is oc- 

 casioned by the destruction of fish foods 

 by the poisons in the water. 



The Conservation Commissioner of 

 Wisconsin, Dr. W. E. Barber, said a 

 system of filtering on some of the 

 streams in his State had been found to 



work well. Mr. Geo. Pratt, the Com- 

 missioner for New Pork, said a confer- 

 ence recently had been held with lead- 

 ing manufacturers to consider plans for 

 purification of the streams. For some 

 years it has been almost impossible to 

 find shad on their spawning grounds be- 

 cause the waters are .polluted. 



The high price of fish in the markets 

 was discussed, and some favored a Fed- 

 eral investigation. The work of propa- 

 gation appeared to be offset by those who 

 control the fish markets and put up the 

 prices. 



Mr. Carlos Avery, of Minnesota, de- 

 scribed how his State had gone into the 

 fish business in order to aid the Federal 

 Food Administration, and said an ample 

 supply of fish had been provided for the 

 people at from one-half to two-thirds 

 the prices previously charged by fish 

 dealers. Dr. Barber, of Wisconsin, said 

 a similar handling of the fish in his State 

 had produced equally good results. 



Meeting of the State Game Officers. 



The meeting of the Fisheries Society 

 was followed by a meeting of the State 

 game officers at the same hotel. Mr. 

 Alexander, the Louisiana Commissioner, 

 presided, and Mr. Carlos Avery, of Min- 

 nesota, was at the Secretary's desk. 



Comparing the two meetings it was 

 observed that the meeting of the Fish- 

 eries Society, which included some State 

 game and fish commissioners, was much 

 better attended than the meeting of the 

 game officers was. This was undoubtedly 

 due to the fact that many scientific per- 

 sons interested in the propagation of fish 

 met with the State officers and the meet- 

 ing had a decided educational value. 



Meetings of the State game officers 



