B6 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[July 22, l89^. 



the lovers of this sport, as it will obviate the necessity of their going 

 to Canada after their flsh. 



From the Hudson the Commissioners went to the Fulton Chain to 

 inspect the hatcheries. TNTille there plans for the new hatcheries were 

 approved, and the work of building them began to-day with the laying 

 of the foundations. Nothing was done at Saranac Inn, because the 

 title to this property is in dispute between Dr. 8. B. Ward and the 

 State. Theproperty will, therefore, remain unimpi-oved until the At- 

 torney-General, to whom the Commissioners have referred the matter, 

 gives some decision. 



Edward P. Doyle, the Secretary of the Commission, said that the 

 location for the two new hatcheries for which the last Legislature 

 made an appropriation of $10,000, would be decided upon by the first 

 of next month. Mr. Doyle also said that the distribution of flsh for 

 this year had exceeded that of any preceding year by over 40,000,000. 

 For the first time in the history of the Commission, lobsters had been 

 successfully hatched on a large scale. 



The car in which the Commission travels is fitted up in such a way 

 as to afford travehng accommodations for the Commissioners and 

 also provide room for the transportation and hatching of small shad 

 fry. After theu- inspection of Oneida Lake the Commissioners will 

 return to New York, and later in the season will make an inspection 

 Of the hatcheries in the western part of the State. 



"FOREST AND STREAM" PISHIITG POSTALS 



Send us a postal card report of your ovm luck, your partner's luck, 

 your neighbor's hick, your father-in-lato's luck, .^nd— her Zwcfc. 



Clayton, N. Y., July 10.— Geo. S. Brownell. Albert 

 Ault, Cliff Ault and Chas. Schubert, of Cincinnati, O., 

 stopping at the Columbian, Thousand Islands Park, caught 

 23 fine large pickerel on the 10th. This is a good start for 

 this season. O. P. Hadcock. 



Little Rook, Ark., July 8.— Last Saturday, with m. J. 

 M. Pemberton, a shooting and fishing companion, I visited 

 Old River, fourteen miles from this city, and witli live 

 bait we took in two and a half hours upward of 60 bass, 

 averaging from li to S^lbs. I have since tried them very 

 successfully with the fly, the Johnson-fancy being the 

 most killing fly I have tried. Jos. W. Irwin. 



Totten^^ille, Staten Island, N. Y., July 12.— Four weak- 

 . fish at half flood. One weighed 5f lbs. one hour after 

 taken j the others were large fish. Prospects for the com- 

 ing week seem good. John T. Hawkins. 



Henderson, N. Y.— Catch of C. F. Beatty, New York, 

 at Brooklyn House, Henderson: July 3, 18; July 4, 42; 

 July 5, rain; July 6, 47; July 7, dead calm, 9. All small- 

 mouth bass. Average weight, about Iflbs. 



A, Wilkinson. 



Mr. T. F. Secor, who has just returned from Chinco- 

 teague, Va., reports the fishing unusually poor for this 

 season of the year. Last year he had good sport previous 

 to July 10 in these waters, but this year he caught nothing 

 worth mentioning. He reports that there are some ' 'tx'ail- 

 ers" caught, but no large bluefish and no weakfish. No 

 doubt the fishing will improve as the season advances. 



Merrill, Clinton County, N. Y. — A guest of the Indian 

 Point House, on Upper Chateaugay Lake, caught three 

 brook trout July 10 that weighed 41bs. One weighed 

 21bs., one lib. 7oz., and one 7oz. The fishing is faMy 

 good at present, and some nice troiit have been taken. 



R. M. S. 



Sayville, L. L, July 8. — There is good fishing in Great 

 South Bay at present." Bluefish and sea bass are biting 

 well. One boat reported a catch of forty bluefish this 

 week. Flounders are also caught in large numbers on 

 the "Cinders." Boats may be had at Sayville, Bay Shore 

 or IsUp. July 17. — The bluefish have gone; but flounders 

 and sea bass are taking the hooks. 



Lake Ronkonkoma, L. L— The bass fishing in this lake 

 is unusually good this year. Since Mr. Wilson's capture 

 of a 7-pounder several other large fish have been taken, 

 including one of 6ilbs. weight. Bass take the fly well at 

 present, but the largest catches are made casting with the 

 frog. 



DanYers, Mass., July 15, 1893.— Frank Brown caught a 

 brook trout here a while ago that weighed Iflbs. We 

 caU that a pretty good catch for this part of the country. 



W. B. C. 



July 15. -^Mr. Harry Crosby, of Chicago, while fishing 

 in Clayton waters for black bass on 8th inst. , hooked and 

 landed a 241b. muskallonge on an 8oz. rod and light 

 tackle, Mr. Crosby had just one hour's hard work before 

 the fish was finally captured and safely in the skiff. 



J. G. Fraser. 



Stevensville, N. Y., July 15.— Mr. Fred Sanford, of 

 Liberty Falls, caught one pickerel weight 41bs. lOoz., and 

 one pickerel, weight 31bs. 12oz. in Stevensville Lake, to- 

 day. He was out about three-quarters of an hour. Pros- 

 pects for next week good. H. M. Stoddard. 



Three Lakes, Wis., July 13.— Mr. Walter Stager and 

 son, of Sterling, 111. caught in four days' fishing 483 black 

 bass largest 5ilbs. , and two maskallonge, largest 15ilbs. 

 Fishing is good For information address 



F. R. French. 



AWEONDACK, N. Y. (Riverside), July 13.— Watch Rock 

 Hotel, on Schroon Lake. — Bass are now running, some 

 good ones being taken. One of our guides landed a 

 121 lbs. lake trout last week, and Judge Freedman, of the 

 New York Superior Court, caught one a few days ago 

 weighing 211bs. Brook trout fishing is good, one of the 

 guests having a 3-pounder in his catch Monday. 



George Cecil. 



Where to Go. 



Anyone desiring information with regard to the hotels 

 advertised in Forest and Stream, such as rates, routes, 

 or fishing and hunting opportunities, should address 

 Forest .and Stream Information Bureau, where all 

 reasonable inquiries will receive prompt answers. 



A Walton Celebration at Niagara. 



Toronto, July 12. — Editor Forest and Stream: It is a 

 cm-ious fact that while the 300th anniversary of the birth 

 of the father of angliug and the chronicler thereof, Izaak 

 Walton, is being duly celebrated in various places in 

 England and the United States, as yet very few points 

 in Canada, the abundant- home of all the finny beau- 

 i es of ttie continent, the happy hxmting waters of so 



many fishermen, have intimated their intention of doing 

 honors to the revered Izaak. There is, however, one 

 place which will celebrate the Walton tercentenary and 

 that is Niagara-on-the-Lake, the picturesque and liis- 

 toric old town (now known chiefly as a summer water- 

 ing place) situated at the mouth of the Niagara River, 

 where its waters go to make Lake Ontario. The waters 

 here have been famous for the excellence of the black 

 bass that are captured in large quantities every year. 

 The water is probably the purest of any in America, as 

 it comes aerated, crystallized and thoroughly ffltered by 

 its plunge over the Falls of Niagara and its rapid cleans- 

 ing career of thirty miles from Lake Erie to Lake On- 

 tario. This fact accounts for the black bass being as 

 fine if not finer than any game fish found elsewhere on 

 the continent. They are all large, small-mouthed, firm- 

 fleshed, none of your flabby large-mouthed fish, and are 

 magnificent eating, having a peculiarly delicious flavor. 

 They are caught at this season with hook and line, the 

 best bait being young minnows, but occasionally they 

 will rise to the trolling spoon. 



At such a spot as this the three hundredth anniversary 

 of Izaak Walton will be celebrated on Aug. 9. A large 

 number of noted anglers from Toronto, Montreal and 

 other Canadian cities, and from Buffalo, Lockport, 

 Rochester and neighboring cities in New York State, will 

 gather. The day wiU be spent in following the bass, and 

 in the evening the anglers' dinner will be held at the 

 Queen's Royal Hotel, in the spacious ball room of the 

 hotel. It will be a fish dinner, and the courses will be 

 the various fish found in the Niagara waters, such as 

 black bass, lake herring, the splendid whitefish, the tasty 

 perch, while such dehcacies as whitebait and brook trout 

 will add to the tastiness of the event. After dinner a 

 smoking concert wiU be held, at which there will be 

 speeches and aU the talk that makes fishermen so com- 

 panionable. It is likely that this occasion will be the be- 

 ginning of a series of annual gatherings at which anglers 

 from both sides of the border may meet in common 

 waters. Waltonian. 



The Chicago Fly-Casting Club. 



Mr. E. E. Wilkinson won all the events at the tourna- 

 ment at Washington Park on July 13. In the first con- 

 test, for accuracy fly-casting, distance 50ft., E. E. Wil- 

 kinson was flrst with an average of 19Ut. , J. E. Isgrigg 

 second. Second contest, long distance fly-casting, E, E. 

 Wilkinson was first, he casting 66ft. ; J. M. Clark was 

 second with 65ift. Third contest, long distance and 

 accm-acy bait-casting, E. E. Wilkinson was first with an 

 average of 99-i%, distance 135^ft. ; F. B. Davidson second, 

 average 99^, distance 128ft. B. Waters. 



Plant ITearlings Where Needed. 



BY WM. F. PAGE. 



A paper read at the Twenty-second Meeting of the American Fish, 

 eries Society, Chicago, 111,, June 15, 1893. 



(Concluded frovi page S2). 



Is THE cost excessive? That is something every man must 

 work out for himself. In commercial fishcultui-e the prob- 

 lem is soon solved by reference to the cash account. In gov- 

 ernmental work it is a matter between the authorized agents 

 and the legislative body controlling. It depends upon so 

 many things that no one can say the cost is or is not excess- 

 ive except for a particular locaHfcy. A food ^\'hich we can 

 well afford to use in Missouri Is found too costly in the East. 



Leaving then the qxiestion of expense, let us see wherein 

 does the planting of yearlings lack analogy to other pro- 

 cesses. Last year the attempt was made to draw a compari- 

 son between stocking a stream with fish and raising an 

 orchard, and with the parallel but half drawn it looked 

 rather adverse to the yearling idea; but had the parallel been 

 carried to its legitimate conclusion we would have seen that 

 the young trees to thrive were in constant need of attention 

 and protection. Food, water and protection from enemies 

 all yoimg trees must have or only the fittest survive. For- 

 getting or ignoring these fundamental principles of hus- 

 bandry, it was concluded that because one could raise large 

 trees from small ones, therefore one could to the best advan- 

 tage stock wUd waters with infant flsh. There is no true 

 simile at any point between the two processes. In the 

 former case we domesticate the trees and in the latter case 

 we natxiralize the fish. These are widely divergent processes, 

 in so much that in naturalization we omitj or at least do not 

 extend, the protection always accompanymg domestication. 

 A fair comparison cannot be di'awn between the two. A 

 fairer comparison might be found in the colonization by man 

 of new countries. Who among the advocates of infant fry 

 planting would support a scheme for colonizing a new 

 America by sending out a cargo of babies? Let us look at 

 this simile and see if it won't parallel better than that of the 

 orchard. The history of the early colonization of this conti- 

 nent and Australia contain accounts of the death from dis- 

 ease, enemies and murder by savages sometimes of entire 

 communities. Truly these were "lambs placed in the lion's 

 den for safekeeping" somewhat on the order recounted (page 

 83, twenty-first meeting) of planting two-pound lake trout ta 

 a lake infested by pickerel. The mcu'al s, if you will put 

 your lambs into lions' dens, don't think it strange if others 

 put their sheep into a sheepfold. But, further, we see that 

 wherever on proper lines colonization has been undertaken, 

 success has crowned the effort, and so it will eventually 

 prove in the naturalization of fish. 



As a practical workman I wish to^enter my negation to the 

 doctrine advanced in this association in the past of the very 

 lai-ge percentage of loss unavoidable in raising fry to year- 

 lings. One member last year said if you have good luck "with 

 one million fry you may have 600,000 fi.?h at the end of the 

 year. In other words a loss of 40 per cent., and another 

 member placed the unavoidable loss at 50 to 75 per cent. I 

 prefer to look upon these statements as fancy born and not 

 as the expressions of experience. Twenty-five years ago they 

 might have held good. But to-day with proper appliances 

 and a proper understanding and knowledge of the work a 

 loss of 75, 50 or even 40 per cent, from fry to yearlings should 

 be considered inexcusable. (This be it under.stood to apply 

 only to the product of such eggs as have not been subject 

 to transportation.) As tottching this matter I ask your at- 

 tention to the followuig quotation from Mi-. Livingston 

 Stone's work, "Domesticated Trout" (third edition, page 190): 

 "I must, nevertheless, venture to disagee with them if they 

 mean that there is any necessary inherent cause of death 

 in the young fry which cannot be removed. Some will die, 

 say 5 per cent., though it ought to be less than this, of weak 

 constitutions. They are born into the world so weakly con- 

 stituted that they cannot stand the wear and tear of life, 

 and must die. I admit there maybe perhaps five per cent, 

 of ithese necessary, unavoidable deaths; but that the rest 

 come into being already doomed to prematm-e death, or that 

 young trout have any mysterious or peculiar inherent cause 



of death in them, ainy more than young calves, or pigs, or 

 chickens, I do not believe. In the present state of infor- 

 mation of the art, young trout fry may be more liable to 

 accidents than other young domesticated creatures, and it 

 may be more difficult to guard against their diseases, but 

 this is another thing. Careless breeding may, and careless 

 hatching will, produce a progeny of young trout of which 90 

 per cent, will die; but this is also another thing. Careful 

 breeding and hatching will produce trout which are just as 

 Ukely to live, in my opinion, as the same number of lambs 

 or chickens; and if the young fry die it is not because of 

 any mysterious, innate cause peculiar to them because they 

 are trout, but it is because they were killed, deliberately 

 killed, by external causes, just as much as lambs or chick- 

 ens are killed by storms, or by parasites, or from starva- 

 tion or poison. It is true that they are killed from igno- 

 rance of their wants, and not from wilful neglect, but it is 

 the same thing abstractly— the cause of death is external 

 and removable, and not innate and necessary. Their wants 

 are peculiar, of course, and more occult and "intangible than 

 those of pigs and colts, and to a beginner it will sometimes 

 seem as if they died without being diseased. But if they 

 were as large as pigs and colts and could be studied as 

 easily, I do not thtuk their wants would be foimd to be 

 any more mysterious or peculiar; and if the cause of dis- 

 ease could be magnified, so as to be observed and studied 

 clearly, I think that no more trout would die when nothing 

 was the matter with them. 



"I am further convinced that study and experience will 

 eventually clear this subject, notwithstanding the difficulties 

 which surround it, and that at some time it will be knowQ 

 how to raise trout and make them live, as well as is knowm 

 how to raise turkeys and chickens. I beUeve that there are 

 energy and intelligence enough now interested in the cause 

 to accomplish this end. I take this ground, partly because 

 any other is ujiphilosophical and uncomplimentary to the 

 intelligence of those who are studying the art, and partly 

 because the facts of experience confirm it." 



On page 149 of the "History ofiHowietoun," Sir James 

 Maitland, speaking of a loss of 20 per cent, in a particular 

 lot of S. levensensis, says: "This is a very heavy percentage, 

 and is probably 8 per cent, too high," and in another place he 

 gives his losses as 11 per cent, and IB per cent. My own ex- 

 perience with healthy eggs and fry is that the loss should not 

 reach 10 per cent. These figures are not guesses. They are 

 founded on actital counts. My method is this: In the spring 

 about or a little before the average time of planting fi-y our 

 young trout are transferred from the hatchuig troughs to the 

 outdoor pools, We commence by taking out 500 of the most 

 advanced fry and putting them into a pool by themselves. 

 No other fry are added to them until they have been taught 

 to readily congregate in the pool for then- food. This train- 

 ing occupies two, three, four or five days, depending upon 

 the fish and the condition of the weather. When they are 

 thoroughly trained in this, a thousand more fry are added. 

 It is expected, and rarely fails, that the 500 trained fish teach 

 the 1,000 new fish to assemble at feeding times. Day by day 

 we add fry in lots of 1,000 until the pool receives its q'uota. 

 Now, the test of the Avhole matter comes in the succeeding 

 fall, when the messenger brings his orders for so many 

 yearling fish. Let us suppose his order calls for 5,830 fish. 

 Then, that is just the number which we give him. But how? 

 As a shipment of fry was formerly determined by counting a 

 pan of 500 and estimating the balance? By no means. The 

 fish are counted. At the Neosho Station three men ordinarily 

 require less than two hours from start to finish in counting 

 and loading an average carload of yearlhigs. The captain 

 of the car is at liberty to supervise and check the count. At 

 its completion he gives a receipt for the number of flsh. This 

 receipt is subject to a check in that the messenger must ob- 

 tain a receipt or receipts from the final recipient or recipients 

 of the fish for the like number, or stand the onus of haA'ing 

 lost the fish in transit. The total of the receipts given by 

 the messengers, subtracted from the total of the fry counted 

 into the pools represents the loss in raising fi-om fry to year- 

 fings. A little while back I made the statement that" this 

 loss need not exceed 10 per cent. Let us see what this loss 

 has been during the history of the Neosho Station. In 1890 

 on rainbow trotit, 9 per cent.; in 1891, on rainbow trout, 7 per 

 cent. ; on Von Behr trout, M per cent. ; on brook trout, 26 per 

 cent.; in 1892, on rainbow trout 6 per cent, and on brook 

 trout 8 per cent. The average of these six instances is 15 per 

 cent. This is 5 per cent, too high, and was occasioned by the 

 excessive loss of 34 per cent, and 36 per cent, respectively in 

 the Von Behr and brook trout of 1891. In the report of thes^ . 

 two lots of flsh, written before this loss occurred, it w^-, 

 stated that they were very inferior lots of flsh, with low ^e^". 

 gree of vitality, and tmlikely to reach maturity. But the . 

 rainbow eggs of the seasons of 1890 and 1891 were stron§,and , 

 healthy, and their fry suffered a loss of only 9 per ceijt. and 

 7 per cent, respectively. The lowest loss, 6 per cent., was in ' 

 the lot of rainbows raised from eggs spawned at Neosho — 

 from eggs which had never tmdergone transportation. I , 

 have a belief that the very bast re.sults in fishculture will be .' 

 attained by hatching from eggs which have not been subr. 

 jected to transportation. 



The successes which have attended our methods of raising ; 

 trout fi-y to yearlings in pools are in the nature of a guaran- . 

 tee or proof that in principde it is very near correct. How 

 dift'eient it is from the practice of planting several thousand 

 fry at one time in one place. Some eighteen years ago when , 

 we were getting ready a shipment of California salmon fry 

 an old gentleman who frequently visited the hatchery asked, . 

 "Who's going to stay down at the river to care for those- 

 minnows and chop liver for them?" The question at that, 

 time provoked a smile; but to-day, in all sei-iousness, I ask 

 it of the advocates of fi-y planting. Who is to take care of 

 your fry after they are planted? In this connection it was 

 well pointed owt in the last meeting that the condition of 

 the fry when jjlanted was such that they must have food at 

 once or they perish. W^hile on the other hand the yearlings 

 are in condition to go without food for a considerable length 

 of time. It has frequently happened in the past, and will I 

 fear frequently happen in the future, that a plant of fry has 

 been dumped in a stream at some point instead of being 

 properly scattered in the smaller streams. Two of the best 

 writers on trout culture have hinted at the danger of this. 

 In the "History of Howietoun," this siguiflcaut passage 

 occurs (page 69): "It must never be forgotten that fry of 

 salmon and trout do not roam in search or food, but take up' 

 flxed positions, and snatch at particles carried past by the 

 current; and they do not forage like yearlings until they are 

 three or four months old. Many of the failures in fishcul- 

 ture are attributable to this habit" being overlooked, although 

 as eaiiy as 1873 it w^as noted by Livingston Stone, who says 

 ("Domesticated Trout," page 171): 'As they continue to grow, 

 they increase their range^ and by the first of September or a 

 little later, they take their food like old trout. ' " Now, what^ • 

 are the consequences of these fi-y thus taking up a fixed 

 abode for several months? L^^nless the number be small or 

 the food be unusually abundant, some of those which escape 

 the thousand and one dangers of the fry stage will be stunted 

 and never attain any .size. But of the vast majority, what.^* 

 They simply go to join the vast majority on the other side of 

 trout life. Listen for a moment to a partial list of the de- 

 structive agencies which ai-e waiting, watching and search- 

 ing for them. But no, 1 won't inflict you. Their name is 

 legion. You all know some of them, but none of us know 

 them all. During the past four years we killed at Neosho 

 Station, 530 predatory birds, 239 piscivorous snakes, 2,5001bs. 

 of crayfish, besides very many other enemies. We try to 

 exemplify the motto tha"t "Eternal vigilance is the price of 

 fish." And yet we lose young carp, tench, bass and other 

 pond fish. Lose by the hundreds, yes, thousands. Not from 

 disease or inherent vreakness, but by enemies so insidious, so 



