Feb. S6, 1891,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



109 



Black River branch of the Rome, Waterfcown & Ogdens- 

 bui'g R. R., and is on the direct carriage road to White 

 Lake and the Bisby Club. This association was gotten 

 up for the purpose of making a family resort for lovers of 

 fiBhing where real enjoyment might be indulged in with- 

 out restraint. There are two well-stocked trout ponds on 

 the premises, one covering an area of 10 or 13 acres and 

 the other about 30 acres. Those afford ample sport for 

 the members and their families. The reports read at the 

 meeting last week show the organization to be prosperous; 

 and at the banquet in the evening there was a merry 

 round of angling talk and reminsoences of the North 

 Woods.— G. A. D. DeF. 



FISHGULTUBAL DISCUSSIONS-ETHICAL 

 PHASES. 



Ediinr Farrst nnrl Strcom: 



Your issue of Jan. 1 came to hand at a time when I was 

 too ill to give it the usual careful peiusal, but a member of 

 the famUy called my attention to your editorial headed "The 

 Status of Fishculture." The paper was at once loaned and 

 when returned was mislaid until a few days ago, when I 

 found nearly a page oP characteristic, irrelevant matter from 

 your Denver correspondent, containing his nsxml tirade of 

 personalities. I also And a short article of my own, sent 

 you Konip. two mouths bnfore. 



I now desire more partiLailarly to reply to your editorial. 

 jVt the very start you misi-epTesent me by saying that you 

 have published my commuuications upon "(ishcultural 

 methods in general." Had you stopped at the words "trout 

 culture" you would have stated the whole truth. To be sure, 

 I have stated that some other lines of fishculture— or 

 methods, if you please— were not a success. 1 have generally 

 said that they were yet in the legitimate experim.ental 

 stage, which artlQcial trout culture passed many vears ago. 

 I am fully aware that there is extensive opposition to 

 present methods of fishculture, and indeed to all methods, 

 with public funds, but I do not, as you state, represent the 

 extreme of this adverse element. On the contrary, I have 

 for a longer period than any other American citizen been an 

 enthusiastic champion of fishculture under all generally 

 accepted methode, each in its tiu-n as developed, and stil'l 

 continue to champion all methods which have pi'oven a suc- 

 cess, or which are yet in a legitimate stage of experiment, 

 and 1 have myself originated some methods which have 

 proven a success and some which have been failures. 



In this connection it is proper to say that I have ever been 

 prompt to publish my failures, in order to prevent others 

 from traveling over the same ground and lose time and 

 money in repeating failru-es. How many fishculturists can 

 you name who have been thus honorable? On the other 

 hand, cannot you name prominent fishculturists who for 

 years kept up the delusion of artificial fishculture for the 

 sake of personal gain, by the sale of eggs and fry, and when 

 at the same time they knew it was a fascinating delusion 

 and sui-e to entail loss upon the customers? And you must 

 certaiidy know that several hundred people in the States of 

 New York and Pennsylvania alone have very thororighly 

 tested artificial trout culture under the direction of these 

 very persons, who sold them eggs and try to the extent of 

 thousands of dollars. Did you ever know anvof them to 

 receive any return tor their expenditures, unless they too 

 succeeded in sellina; eggs and try? I could repeatediyfill 

 every page of Forest and ,Sti;75:am with reliable .statements 

 of men who were victims of tliese trout culturists, and who 

 lost various sums, from a few hundred up to as high as eight 

 thousand dollars each. I have met scores of these victims 

 and have communications from hundreds more, and most of 

 them were from prominent men in their i-espective localities. 



Now, it is a fact that most of these men thought for years 

 that they were making a success, and a quarter of a century 

 ago the newspapers of the country teemed %vith accounts of 

 their supposed success. 1 particulnrly recall the New York 

 Weekly TriJmrie with its prodigious circulation, especially 

 among farmers; and I was myself one of its occasional con- 

 tributors, and believed I was stating facts regarding the 

 success of artificial trout culture; and so 1 was, as far as the 

 public had adequate experience, namely, successful hatch- 

 ing and distribution of young try. But here all success 

 ceased, although it required several years to develop this 

 fact, for we all know of the slow growth of trout. But all 

 did learn that it cost from one dollar to two and a half dol- 

 lars a pound to raise them. 



Now, you and your correspondent mention a few instances 

 where parties claim there is some degree of success, although 

 the same is not very clearly specified. I have no doubt that 

 you have read numerous published statements concerning 

 the successful restocking of trout streams, and have had 

 reason to believe them, etc. Y'our experience is simply a 

 repetition of that of hundreds of others about twenty-five 

 years ago. liecause of the simplicity of artificial propaga- 

 tion and dLstrilrution of young fry, we all at that time 

 thought that therepopulation of the streams was an assured 

 fact. But the result was a striking illustration of "hope 

 deferred." The years of patient, "painstaking, hopeful 

 experiment brought no increase to the table or creel, and in 

 all these years of experimental repetition there havebeen no 

 consequential returns for the time and money expended. 

 It is true there have been trom time to time years of increased 

 productiveness in many trout .streams; but in most instances 

 they have l)een iu streams which have never been restocked, 

 and the iucrease in every ease was due to natural causes, 

 whether in stocked or unstocked streams, and these causes 

 are now well anderstood by all old fishculturists and have 

 been repeatedly explained, even by your humble servant and 

 in your own columns. I know of my own knowledge of 

 numerous streams which have become so restored to their 

 old-time productiveness, and all old trout streams would 

 thus become restored if their surroundings were allowed to 

 revert to old-time conditions, and they will never be restored 

 in any other maimer. I believe that all thoroughly experi- 

 enced students of nature, .such men as Charles Halioek, for 

 instance, will take this view of the matter. 



Your Denver correspondent took umbrage because I said 

 he was callow (upon this subject only), and also charged 

 that I antagonized the views of the late Prof. Baird and 

 others who, like him, had investigated the subject. Now, I 

 know what Prof. Baird's views were upon the subject quite 

 as well as the Denver man could, because for nearly three 

 years I experimented with SalriionidCB by his request and 

 under his direction, and this interva' included "Centennial" 

 yeai-, when I Avas with him frequently. I have a large 

 number of letters from him in this connection. I know 

 that within a year of his death he had nearly despaired of 

 any adequate success with SalmonldcG. A few months 

 before his death a gentleman, then and now in a puijiic 

 position at Washington conversed with him ou this particu- 

 lar subject, and beins an old acquaintance of mine, asked 

 the Professor's opinion of my oft-published views concern- 

 ing the propajjati on of Snlrn Oil idee and stocking of waters 

 with them. The Professor replied that I was a persistent 

 and industrious investigator and that my views were en- 

 titled to respect; that he considered me a valued correspond- 

 ent of the Bureau, .nnd in the main h« thought my fishcul- 

 tutal views were correct. A short time ""before this the 

 meiftl)&p <?f Ooiig¥§sg »y cli5tfi<?t galled upoa the Pi-Q* 



feasor concerning a matter of special interest to me, and the 

 Professor voluntarily expressed himself in a similar man- 

 ner to him. So much for the grandest authority ever known 

 in this country. I am sui-e you will not deny that from 

 eighteen to twenty-five years ago there were many hundreds 

 of persons in various parts of the country engaged in trout 

 culture, and I again challenge yoti to locate many, if indeed 

 any more than a dozen pei'sous now thtis engaged, unless 

 directly or indirectly backed ^vith public funds: There may 

 also be a few cases w^bere a snudl Imsiuess is done iu connec- 

 tion with summer resorts, merely as a side attraction. In- 

 deed most of the places mentioned by you and in the news- 

 papers generally in this connection are summer resorts, and 

 thousands of dollars of public money are thus used to boom 

 these resorts. Some people do not think this a legiti- 

 mate use of public ftmds. But surely were the business 

 such a .success as you claim, there would be, after 

 all these years of experiment, hundreds if not thousands of 

 persons engaged in it. I have no idea that any of the parties 

 whom you think are now making a success of the business 

 will be engaged in it five years hence, unless they can find 

 as customers for their stock enough inexperienced persons 

 ready to travel over the same paths that hundreds of others 

 have marked by universal disa,ster. I wish right here to 

 confidently express the belief that no other person has in- 

 vestigated this .subject so many yeirs and so thoroughly as 

 myself , and I am perfectly willing to take the chances of 

 intelligent readers (and certainly intelliijent investigators) 

 accepting my views, rather than the views of thoseVhose 

 stock in trade consists of invective and whose only argu- 

 ment is to charge with egotisin those who make some par- 

 ticular subject a specialty. The charge of egotism in such 

 cases is invariably the last argument of the conceited, intel- 

 ligent ignoramus. Y'our Denver man says I have some 

 personal grievance against him! Nothing could be more 

 absurd. I only know him as a pioneer publisher of af rentier 

 paper, and quite a "hustler," to use a frontier terra. He has 

 the reputation of being quite a successful "boomer" of his 

 region, and it is so much to his credit that some well-mean- 

 ing people will pardon him in his endeavor to entice tourists 

 to liis region under the irapres.sion that they will find as 

 good trout fishing as when the region was first settled. 

 Some of the tourists, however, have published statements to 

 the effect that the catch there has been graduallv and surely 

 falling otf. Residents of the region have written me to 

 the same effect and have also stated that there are but verv 

 few persons in Colorado engaged in trout culture and that 

 the business was dying out. 1 myself heard one of a party 

 of tourists say they wottld not go to Colorado again, with 

 the expectation of getting satisfactory trout fishing. Now, 

 I place as much reliance upon the word of these" various 

 parties, as I would upon a person who was engaged in 

 "booming" the region and who acknowledges his ignorance 

 of fishculture. 



The long-winded communication referred to is largely 

 composed of old statistics of an alleged increase of shad "and 

 whitefish some years ago, and a claim that said increase was 

 due to ai'tiflcial propagation. I fail to .see what this has to 

 do with artificial trout culture, even were it reliable, which 

 it certainly is not. I think I have already stated in your 

 columns that for the past fifty years it has been extensively 

 observed in the region of the Eastern .shad-producing waters 

 that there was quite a uniform fiuctuation from year to year 

 iu the production, from increase to decrease alternately, 

 there being on an average but three prolific seasons in each 

 ten. Every shad fisherman, every dealer and every habitual 

 consumer in these regions will testify to this fact, and, so 

 far, the extensive propagative operations have caused no 

 perceptible change; .still, as a new departure in jdanting 

 (long urged by me) has been inaugurated, there is yet hope 

 of some success: but a "progressive" close time will have to 

 be adopted in the Delaware FLiver, in order to make any .suc- 

 cess above the lower third of that stream. [ will re'mark 

 here that fish commis.sions, through their organs, proclaimed 

 the season of 1887 one of the most prolific ever known there. 

 I was ou the ground and obtained the same statistics as sent 

 to the U. S. Fish Commission, and know it was the poorest 

 shad season ever known. Philadelphia had to obtain much 

 the larger portion of her supply from New York city, the 

 season on the Hudson being a fairly good one. The fish 

 commi,ssion statistics, especially estimates, have been and 

 continue to be very incomplete and unreliable. I am quite 

 familiar with that subject. The planting- of a small lot of 

 shad on the Pacific coast has been a grand success, and had 

 the plants been repeated every year since, it is not likely that 

 it would have made any perceptible difference in the results. 

 It would be like attempting to create a frestiet in a river 

 with a sprinkling pot. 



Now, regarding the whitefish, I have always urged 

 thorough experimental Avork iu their propagation aud 

 planting. This work has been intelligently prosecuted for a 

 long term of years, especially in Tiake Erie. So far, there 

 have been no perceptible results for the great labor aud ex- 

 penditure entailed. Those most extensively and the longest 

 in the fi.shery trade on Lake Erie are my authority for this 

 statement. The status of the whitefish' has been carefully 

 observed by those in the trade for 40 to .50 yeai-s past, and 

 about the same fluctuation as iu the case of shad has been 

 noted. There were seasons fjom 30 to 40 years ago whi-n they 

 were scarcer than they have ever been since; a fact which 

 "knocks Fish Commission .statistics silly." There has been 

 for the past few years a steady decline iu the catch, although 

 the ^ippliances and eft'orts for their capture were never so ex- 

 tensive and complete. I have been taking especial pains to 

 investigate during the past two yeais, and particularly dur- 

 ing the present season. Even those ti.shermeu who sav that 

 there may ultimately be .some returns for the propagating 

 operations, Uave not sufficient confidence in the work to aid 

 even in planting the young fish, xml ess paid for it. Those 

 the longest and most extensively iuterested and experienced 

 declare that all propagation of lake Q.sheries is just so much 

 dead loss; and I cannot understand wdiy those at a distance, 

 and having no adequate means of knowing the facts, should 

 continue to brazenly dispute such authority. It is certainlj^ 

 an exhibition of monumental presumption. So far as I am 

 concerned, I investigate a subject very thoroughly before 

 making published assertions; consequently I rarely make 

 mistakes concerning these matters, iiut, if I chance to do so, 

 I am prompt to make corrections aud not mislead others. 



The whole issue in this discus.sion, on my part, has been 

 the trout questiou, but you and your Denver man seem 

 desirous of diverting the attention "of your readers from the 

 question at i.s.sue aud gratuitously proclaim me as opposed 

 to general fishculture, for which "I am at the present time 

 an acknowledged champion and have been for a longer 

 period than any other American. 



Another characteristic operation was the publishing in 

 that nearly full page Denver communication of an idiosyn- 

 cratic paragraph from the American A n(jler and peculiar 

 to one of the editors of that jouiual. Himself and your 

 Denver corre.spondent are in the .same boat, both publishing 

 erratic matter on a subject upon which both are ill-inform ed, 

 and when the bottom is completely knocked out of their 

 statements by the simple presentation of cold facts, which 

 are unimpeachable, they become discourteous and grossly 

 personal. But the Amjlcr, to its credit, published my com- 

 munication complete, which effectually neuti-alized the 

 prefix copied in the communication referred to, but your cor- 

 respondent did not have the honor to publish my communi- 

 cation, as it would have neutralized his page communication 

 as well. It is unprofitable to discuss any subject with those 

 who resort to sueh dishonorable practices as the publication 

 of untruthful squibs and then carefully suppress the replies 

 ■Jotir Denver maa Beerastotbiuja me ijuite lU-ictgrmea 



about what he evidently suppuses to be modern methods of 

 trout culture, namely, stocking with yearling trout. This 

 method of replenishing waters is older than hi.story itself, 

 having been practiced from remote periods of semi-civiliza- 

 tira down to the present time. The first waters I ever stocked 

 with trout were with wild .specimens, evidently one and two- 

 year-olds, but there may have been older specimens, as the 

 age of wild trout is enigmatical. 1 know of waters .stocked 

 ill this manner from forty to fifty years ago; but this is not 

 artificial fishculture. It is, however, far superior to u.sing 

 artificiall.y hatched trout, which are not nearly so hardy, 

 and besides, when artiticially reared to a year or more, they 

 are practically incapable of taking care of themselves. This 

 I have personally tested and know that the method is as un- 

 reliable as stocking with young fry. If you .and your clearly 

 deluded Denver correspondent will make half the carefiil 

 iuvestigations that I have, you vnll learn, as many hun- 

 dreds have learned by castly expecience, that artificial trout 

 culture is a fascinating delusion. 



And now, in conclusion, it is to be hoped that you and 

 others will cease misrepresenting me as opposed to fishcul- 

 ture in general. I believe and have for a long term of years, 

 that trout can be made more plenti ful by protected preserves, 

 mainly of running water, properly prepared and stocked 

 with adult wild trout, but even this method has never proved 

 a remarkable success in open waters, such as are stocked by 

 fish commissions. 



^ Since this correspondence has been running in Foeest AND 

 Steeam, 1 have had a large number of letters upon the sub- 

 ject from various parts of the country, and but a solitary one 

 claimed that trout-stocked waters were a success, and he 

 claimed that several .streams in his region now contained 

 trout which never had any until stocke'd by the State com- 

 mission several years ago. It so happened that I was in the 

 region named thirty-four years ago (then ju.st being settled) 

 and the few inhabitants there were enthusiastic about the 

 purity of their waters, and claimed that they all contained 



'speckled trout." Several parties write that they had 

 thought of trying trout culture, but thank me for changing 

 their minds upon the subject. I will close by saying that I 

 am notified of arrangements pending for a large game and 

 trout preseive, the land being already .secured; and I have 

 been practically engaged to plan "and superintend the 

 preparation of the trout feature of the enterprise, and per- 

 haps the whole. There will be no artificial propagation of 

 trout. One of the parlies has had several years experience 

 in artificial propagation, but abandoned it years ago as 

 illusory. MtltoiN P. pJiiHCE. 



CouuMBUS, Ohio, Feh. 6. 



■ SEA TROUT FROM SCOTLAND. 



ABOUT 15,000 eggs of the sea trout (Salvio truUa), which 

 w^ere sent from Europe at the request of Shooting and 

 Fishing have been forwarded to Mr. Charles G. Atkins, at 

 Craig's Brook, Me., for development. 



The sea trout is a migratory species, occurring in rivers 

 flowing into the Baltic and German Ocean, and also ascend- 

 ing rivers of Great Britain. It is a.bunda,nt in Scotland, 

 from whence the eggs were obtained. This trout is com- 

 monly called sea trout, salmon trout or bull trout. It is the 

 See~Fnrdlc or Lachs-ForeUc of [Germany and the Oiiax or 

 Lnx()rini;i of Scandinavia. The young have nine or ten 

 dusky crossbars. Half-grown individuals have the upper 

 part of the pectoral and dorsal fins and the hind margin of 

 the caudal black. Adults are .silvery, sometimes without 

 spots, but usually with x-shaped spots in large or small 

 numbers. The marking.?, however, are subject to gTeat 

 variation in number, size and shape. On the head and 

 dorsal fin the .spots are roundish when present. The caudal 

 fin is forked in the young aud slightly emarginate or per- 

 fectly truncate in the adult. 



The sea trout grows to a length of about 3ft., and females 

 10 or 12in. long may be sexually mature. The species spawns 

 late in the fall or in the winter, aud the young run down to 

 the sea in the spring. Iu the breeding season the lower jaw 

 of the male is hooked. 



The following quotation from Dr. Day's "British and 

 Irish Salmonida?" is of interest in this connection: "Anglers 

 find in rivers these fish will niostly take a worm if the 

 waters are muddy, as it begins to clear a spinning bait, and 

 when fine a fly. If hooked they often display eonsideraWe 

 cunning in their attempts to lireak the line with a blow 

 from the tail, or impetuously dart otf, when a similar result 

 ensues, should it not readily run off the reel. Stoddard 

 ob,served that during the season clean sea trout give more 

 sport than salmon to the anglers; in fact in Scotland an 

 hour or two's white trout fishing when the fish are in the 

 humor is esteemed good .sport, as they often take a fly well, 

 Avhile in .some places they may be taken up to 6 or 71bs. 

 weight; iu Wales the sewm are also similarly sought after, 

 especially of an evening, with fine tackle and a small 

 fly. But large examples, as bull trout, appear to generally 

 refuse bait or flies, but kelts are readily hooked." 



COLORADO STATION OF U. S. PISH CO^HMISSION. 

 —The new hatchery at Leadville, Colorado, had the follow- 

 ing stock ou hand Jan. 31, 1891: Brook trout (fonUnalis) fry, 

 19,273; do. breeders. 149; Loch Leven trout fry, 1,377; black- 

 spotted trout fry, S78; do. yearlings, 1,000: do. breeders, 7,33; 

 rainbow trout breeders, 5; total 23,315. The number of eggs 

 iu process of hatching were as follows: Brook trout (fonU- 

 n(dis) collected, 139,199; do. from the East, 19.789; Von Behr 

 trout (fariu), 99,474; total 358,412. The tran.sfer of eggs and 

 fish from their temporary quarters to the new building was 

 to be completed by Feb. 9. The lowest air temperature in 

 January was 10 deg. below zero, and the highest observed 

 at noon was 41 deg. The water temperature was uniformly 

 44 deg. 



SALMON EGGS SENT TO FRANCE.— In January the 

 U. S. Fish Commission shipped from Cold Spring Harbor, 

 New Y'ork, 90,000 eggs of the quinnat or chinook salmon 

 (Oncorhyyichus ehouicha) to France. The consignment was 

 forwarded per steamer Ija Gascogne. Notwithstanding 

 the comparative failure to acclimate this valuable fish in 

 tributaries of the Mediterranean, the French fishculturists 

 mean to continue the experiment in the hope of ultimate 

 .success. 



W\s HE INSUHED ? is a question we ask almost as» naturally 

 after a man's death as after a lire; because it is coming to be re- 

 cognized as much a matter of business prudence to insure one's 

 life as it is to insure against loss by fire. There are many good 

 business men in the world, and it might be a matter of wonder 

 where they all insured their lives did not the annual reports of 

 the companies call atten tic a to the immense bnsine.?s done by 

 some of ihem. Here Is the New York Life, for example, whose 

 report appears in auotber column, with an annual income of 

 thirty-two million dollars, witb assets to the araouat of one hun- 

 dred and fiftpen millions, and carrying over Svo hundred and 

 sisty-nine millions of insurance on its books. Itpaid over thirteen 

 millions to policy holders in 1890, and wrote a hundred and flfty- 

 nine millions of new insurance. This company carries about 

 fifteen VGV cent, of all the insurance in force in American com- 

 panie.=, and does about nineteen per cent, of the new business. Its 

 success is the result of superior manageniont, and is well deserved, 

 — _'idt). 



FOHHST AND Btbeam, Box 3,883, N. Y, city, has desarintlve lUus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. LeffingweU's book, "Wild Wcv/l Shoot- 

 ing," which wild he mailed free on reouest. Tha hook ie prq- 

 noiinced by "Nanlt." "Gloan." "Dick SwiVeller "^blHaiiB" aad 



otiar poajpeteat sutaoriWes t-o the best treatla? 05 tfee so^mt 



