B12 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
t April -21, 1900. 
w«re always given in the score books— in fact, the rules 
prescribed the length of the rods. For instance, Rule 3, 
reads: "No single-handed flj' rod shall exceed it feet 
6 inches in length, and shall be used with a single hand." 
Rule 5 reads: "No allowance of distance shall be 
made for difierence in length of rods; but in the con- 
tests with light rods of 5 ounces and under an allowance 
of ounce shall be made in favor of such rods as have 
solid reel seats." - 
■In salmon casting there was no restriction on the 
length of rods, but in black bass contests the rods were 
limited to 10 feet in length, and in heavy bass casting 
(striped bass) the rods were limited to a length of 9 feet. 
About a year ago 1 asked in a general way in this col- 
umn for information in regard to style of rod used by 
Mr. Mansfield and- other casters in the far Western tour- 
-nament, but nothing has been published on the subject 
that I have seen. Perhaps Mr. Mansfield will furnish the 
ijlformatibn that is now desired by Mr. Marston. 
i ,i Tie Eel Agaio, 
The first matter referred to one of the new Forest, 
Fish and Game Commissioners of New York State re- 
lates to the eel, and is contained in the following letter 
from Southold, L. L. and is signed by B. W. Case: "It 
has been an open question in regard to spawning of eels. 
Eels do not spawn; they produce their young alive, the 
same as the shark or dogfish. If the Commission wants to 
make it an object for me I can produce the young eels." 
He does not say how he can produce them, but the as- 
sumption is that he thinks he can produce them alive front 
the female, "the same as the sh^rk and dogfish"; and in 
this Mr. Case , differs radically from the scientists who 
have studied the eel more thoroughly and more intelli- 
gently than he seems to have done; but I quote the let- 
ter simply to show what, people actually believe on the 
subject of eel reproduction. 
Aatfquity of Fish Feedicg. 
,Mr. Chambers writes me further in regard to the lines 
he sent me referring to feeding fishes: "In the copy of 
Forest and Stream which reached me to-day I find the 
half dozen lines on the feeding of fish that were discussed 
in. recent- letters of our correspondence; and:though the 
author in whose compilation I read them (the Rev. W. B. 
Daniel) only mentioned the translator and not the author, 
which is one of his customary tricks, I fear, I have as- 
certained from other sources that they comei from the 
'Trcedium Rtisticwn" of the Jesuit Father Vaniere, who 
in sixteen books, modeled on the Georgics of Virgil, 
sings the pastoral delights of agricultural and country 
life in general. Book XV., in which the lines I sent you 
occur, is entitled "Stagna," and as the name implies is 
devoted entirely to a description of fish ponds. It first 
appeared in the edition of 1730, which was published at 
Toulouse." ■ . 
This proves that the necessity of feeding fish was rec- 
ognized before the art of artificial, propagation was dis- 
covered in 1741, for it is now generally conceded that 
the monk Dom Pinchon, in 1420, simply transferred the 
naturally impregnated fish eggs from one water to an- 
other and did not take the spawn by hand, as Jacobi did. 
and to-day, 170 years later, there seems to be a general 
apathy in regard to feeding the fish hatched in such great 
numbers by artificial processes. Fish breeders realize 
that fish must be fed, For they are obliged to feed then- 
stock fish and the young hatched from them; but it is 
the general publich to /whom , J, .-refer.-. : Three years ago 
a fish protective association made an application to the 
fish commission of the State in wlfich the association 
is doing excellent work in . protecting fish, asking for a 
certain number,' of trout to be planted in a brook named 
in the application, Had it been possible to grant the ap- 
plication and the trout had been planted, they would have 
Starved, for the brook did not furnish food enough for 
even a small riumber of the fish asked for, and yet the 
men composing the association are intelligent men, prom- 
inent in the ordinary affairs of life; but not one of them, 
sportsmen and anglers as they were, understood that they 
must feed the fish they planted or that the water must 
provide it, or the fish would perish from starvation. 
A. Cheney, 
In Rhode Island Waters. 
Providence, R. I., April 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Trout fishing has not been of the best thus far this season 
in this section, although in the south county there are said 
to be plenty of the speckled beauties in the brooks. The 
weather, however, has been so cold 1 and the brooks so 
high tJiat the fish have not bitten to the satisfaction of the 
fishermen who have visited that part.of the State in quest 
of them. ; ' 
Flatfish are being caught in quite large numbers ofif the 
wharves below this city, more especially at Pawtuxet, 
Riverside and Bullock's Point dnd near the oyster beds 
in the lower bay. These fish were nearly ten days late in 
their appearance this year, -but "as a rule they are of larger 
size than usual. Herring and shad are being taken in 
large numbers with scoop' nets, as they are making their 
Avay up the waterways and deposit their spawn in fresh 
water. 
Although the weather has been cjuite cold for this time 
of the year, the usual bird life: is in evidence, and nearly 
all of the early migrants arrived about on schedule time. 
In the suburb where I reside bluebirds, robins and song 
jparrows have been very plentiful, while it is very notice- 
able the absence of the tyrannical little English sparrow. 
This morning I started out for a short tramp through 
the woods,, and in about two hours' walk noted the red- 
shouldered _ hawk, cooper hawk, osprey, crow, flicker, 
phcebe, robin, bluebird, field sparrow, song sparrow, black 
and white creepers, cat bird, meadow lark, chickadee, 
chipping sparrow, red-winged blackbird and grackle. On 
the beams under an old barn I fotmd a nearly comnleted 
new nest of the phoebe. Upon my return home I referred 
to my notebooks and found that on April 21, 1895 which 
was warm and ulea-^ant. -1 took a nest and four eggs of 
this bird nenr Rehobotli, Mass. The same pair occupied 
the same old barn for several years, and I always found 
eggg a number of days earlier thnn in anv otluT localitv. 
. ' W, H- M. 
Food of Young Muscalonge. 
In this closmg year of the nineteenth century perhaps 
the most marked feature of zoological science is the 
strong trend it is taking toward economic problems or its 
application in the interests of man. 
m the historical development o'f -a -Science we must 
recognize the succeeding periods of investigation and dis- 
covery, then experimentation and application. To the 
scientist this rheans first the discovery and description of 
specimens representing species', next classification or sys- 
tematic grouping and perhaps the regrouping of these 
species, then investigation of life habits, discovery of the 
relationships of the organisms to the economy of man, 
suggestions and primary experimentation for their propa- 
gation if beneficial, or reduction if obnoxious, to the 
interests of man, and finally these are followed by the 
general efforts of the public to dp whatever the experi- 
menting scientist has shown to be possible. This is 
economic science, and it is only through such means that 
the interests of mankind at large can be subserved by 
the persons who study these subjects. This is science 
for its practical value, and not "science for science's 
sake" as has been the motto of a rapidly fossilizing school 
of naturalists. What is the reason or justification in 
knowing or doing anything if it is of no use? Many 
have been the men in former years who have advocated 
"science for science's sake," and their names and labora- 
tories have been unknown, their value being found only in 
the possibility that they may have enabled more practical 
naturalists to follow. Others have believed in "science 
for man's sake," and these have been the Fultons, the 
Whitneys, the Morses, the Edisons and other beneficiaries 
of the race. 
Electricity has taken such wonderful strides only be- 
cause specialists have shown how it can be made of prac- 
tical value to mankind. If such men as Edison had de- 
voted their time to the personal pleasures of investigating 
rare or unimportant phenomena that were of mere per- 
sonal interest, as we have known a few unpractical 
scientists to do, much of the world that is now lighted 
would literally be in darkness at present.. 
Many zoologists have been trying to find and describe 
new or unique forms of life, neglecting the great problems 
of the benefits to mankind from those that are common 
about them. This has continued until our once abundant 
native fishes, birds and mammals have become so greatly 
reduced in numbers and so nearly pushed to extinction 
that even the populace has had to cry aloud for facts re- 
garding the causes of this extermination and possible 
methods of preventing it. Many naturalists are only com- 
mencing to awaken to the realization of these needs and 
come to the assistance of our too rapidty perishing valu- 
able forms of life. The remedy of these evils is plainly 
to be found within the scope of State biological stations, 
and that is why so many persons have very earnestly urged 
the establishment of such a station for the State of New 
York. It is to be regretted that two persons of the New 
York State Legislature could see fit to defeat such a 
measure after it had passed the Senate, and had nothing 
else in the wa^' of its establishment. In each State there 
is a demand for a zoological Edison, to show to the per- 
sons who wish to .see an abundance of fish, game and birds 
how to "push the button" and let nature "do the rest." It 
is true that there are many persons who are working 
along these lines, and the one who is doubtless foremost 
among them is that able and wonderful naturalist, Dr. 
S. A, Forbes. Professor of Zoologj' and Entomology in 
the University of Illinois, and Director of the Illinois 
State Biological Station. For years the published re- 
ports of his investigations have been of untold value, and 
he, if any one. is to be called the "Father of State 
Biological Stations." When he asked for money with 
which to establish the Illinois station, he promptly re- 
ceived three times the amount named. So much for the 
difference between generosity in Illinois and the obstinacy 
of at least a few legislators in New York. 
In one of the recent publications of the Illinois State 
Biological Station we read the following from Prof. 
Forbes : 
"The art of fishculture is to oUr waters what the art of 
agriculture is to our tillable lands. Each was in the 
beginning purely empirical, resting on a small store of 
common knowledge gained by the crude experience of the 
uneducated and the untrained. Agriculture has now 
been largely placed on a scientific foundation, and vigorous 
efforts are making all over the civilized world to extend, 
to deepen, and to render more exact in every direction 
our acquaintance with the sciences which underlie the 
practice of this oldest of the arts. The development of 
fishculture has, however, lingered far behind that of its 
companion subject, compared with which it is indeed 
still in the stage of barbarism. We treat the product of 
our natural waters with a degree of intelligence and skill 
scarcely above that which the Indian exhibited in his 
rude attempts at agriculture before the time of Colum.bus. 
Our biological station was founded in part with the hope 
of helping to do for fishculture what forty or more agri- 
cultural experiment stations are now doing for the agri- 
culture of the United States." 
Relying upon the essence of these reports, as well as 
upon the results of our own investigations, especially as 
Field Naturalist of the Illinois Station, we now officially 
attempt to answer some of the questions by Secretary 
Gould, of the Ncav York State League, concerning 
rearing young muscalonge. asked in Forest .\nd Stream 
for Feb. 10, 1900. Mr. Gould has asked m.any perti- 
nent questions about the food, habits and needs of' the 
young muscalonge that can be answered only through 
investigations such *as can and should be made at a 
biological station. The answers to these questions are 
to-day not known to mankind, but it would not be 
difficult for a trained naturalist to commence with the 
first hatching of the fry of the muscalonge in May and 
determine their food and the changes in their food and 
feeding habits from the time they are very little felloAvs 
up until they become adult fish. 
Yet this is not enough. Tn act intelligently we should 
know not only the food of the fish in question, but also 
I lie food of it* food in turn, until we come to the vegeta- 
tion and finally the inorganic elements: the composition 
and temperature and other characters of the water, the 
nature of the soil or mud, the araouai of direct sunshine. 
winter and summer conditions of the water, and other 
factors that would help to render desirable kinds of vege- 
tation abundant in such a place. 
It is a great principle in biology that all animals depend 
either directly or indirectly upon plants for their sus- 
tenance, and the vegetable kingdom in turn lives upon the 
inorganic or mineral kingdom. 
With the subject in question it is these relationships 
for. the muscalonge that we need to discover. While it is 
true that these are not known for this species of fish, the 
muscalonge not occurring in Illinois, where most studies 
of this nature have been made, it is known at least in part 
for certain closely related species. The pickerel and pike 
belong to the same genus as the muscalonge and theif 
feeding habits have been fairly well studied, although 
these studies were made in waters differing greatly from 
those of New York. 
Prof. Forbes has shown that species of fishes which as 
adults are wholly piscivorous or fish-eating have three 
great dietary periods in their lives. During the first of 
these they feed on the ver}^ minute organisms in the 
water, especially small crustaceans such as daphnia and 
Cyclops, in common with nearly all species of very young 
fishes. We know that these crustaceans in turn feed, 
upon algze, especialy on one-celled algze, or the minute 
"green scum," "green slime" and related forms of 
aquatic plant life. These algje in turn owe their existence 
to the mud. the dissolved substances in the water, the light 
and heat of the sun, and a properly quiet condition of 
the water. 
The second stage in the food of young fishes is the in- 
sectivorous stage, when they feed mostly or wholly upon 
small insects — larvae and pupje, as well as adults — and 
upon some of the larger crustaceans. The black bass is in 
this stage -when it is about an inch in length. Last sum- 
mer we caught several verj' little large-mouth black bass 
in the stomachs of which we found nothing but adult in- 
dividuals (about fifty in number) of a very small aquatic 
bug (Corisa burmeisteri). The insects which fish talo^. 
at this stage may feed either upon other insects, moUusks, 
crustaceans, or vegetation, but mostly upon the latter. 
Some species of fishes, such as the brook trout, never 
change the bulk of their diet from that of the second 
stage. In fact, a few, such as the paddle fish or "spooil 
bill cat" {Polyodon) of the Western waters, never change, 
from the diet o_f the first stage. Other fishes of the more 
voracious kinds, such as the lake trout, pike, pickerel and 
muscalonge, live almost exclusively in the third or fish- 
eating stage. 
It can Tdc seen that these three stages correspond to 
three distinct sizes of food, not from choice, but from 
necessity. In the first place, when the newly hatched fry 
are first ready to take food, they are not only too small 
to eat fish, but are also too small to eat insects. In 
fact, in this stage many insects and worms (leeches) 
destroy them. They must have food, and as they are not 
adapted to eating vegetation, as does the tadpole, their 
natural food must be the smallest animal organisms in 
the water. These are especially the small crustaceans 
named, which are not larger than the head of an ordinary 
pin, and look like animated grains of cofnmeal darting 
through the water. 
As the young fish become larger they find it necessary to 
take larger forms of food, and the aquatic insects and 
larger crustaceans. Without the development of special 
collecting apparatus the fish can no longer obtain the more 
minute material in sufficient quantity to supply its needs, 
hence the change to large food. Thus we see that the 
presence or absence of certain structures or adaptations 
limit and determine the kind of food that can be taken by 
the possessors of those structures. For example, a fish 
with mouth parts like those of a sucker could not take the 
same kind of food as a pickerel, rfny more than the 
latter could feed in the same way as the former. 
Some very young fish have an apparatus for taking food 
entirely different from that possessed by the same kind 
of fish when it becomes older, while on the other hand, 
some kinds, such as the muscalonge, when adult, have 
strong teeth in mouth and throat and other adptations for 
taking food which must differ very decidedly in every 
way from that taken when younger. 
Every angler knows the nature of the food of the 
adult muscalonge and also knows that it is a fish of the 
cold Northern waters. It is certainly one of the most 
voracious fishes known, and in habits is to be closely com- 
pared with its congener, the Avall-eyed pike or pike-perch 
(Stisostedion ) . Such fishes are the wolves of the waters, 
and their introduction should be attempted with great 
care and knowledge of the waters into which they are to 
be placed. Where they become abundant they effectually 
kill off nearly all other kinds of fishes in the waters they 
inhabit, especially if it be an isolated pond or lake where 
other fishes do not freely migrate into it. If said pond or 
lake contains only the coarser or less valuable forms of 
fishes, it may be well to stock it with muscalonge and 
wall-eyed pike, but if fine fish or other desirable game 
fish are abundant it is certainly advisable to prevent these 
wolves beneath the waves from exterminating more valu- 
able forms of '■ life. Here again is decided need of 
biological investigations to determine what waters should 
be and what should not be stocked with such fish. 
Knowing these facts, we can see what is necessary. 
Mr. Gould's idea of rearing ponds is excellent. There 
should be several in each county. Make the pond much 
deeper in some parts than in others. See to it that it has a 
good supply of cool water, with plenty of shade bushes 
and trees, especialy along the southern and western sides. 
If it is possible to arrange a side ditch to turn the muddy 
water through during a freshet, do so. Before putting 
in the fry, transplant vegetation from a quiet pond, and in 
the shallower parts plant the Myriophyllum, a kind of 
aquatic "moss" that is found so abundant in the stream 
at Caledonia and at Castalia, O. This vegetation will 
support the small crustaceans and insecta, and when these 
become abundant, turn in the fish fry. The number of 
fry the pond will support depends entirely upon the 
abundance of the minute forms of life upon which the fry 
need to feed. This can be determined by examination and 
properly regulated. When the fish become larger trans- 
fer them to another pond and seilie small minnows frorij 
the creek? for them. Do not keep any other fi-:h or mia- 
i\ows in the rearing. 
It is to be regretted that two men in our State Legis- 
lature last week prevented the possibility of this kind of 
