466 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
REPORT OF THE FISH COMMISSIONERS. 
To His Excellency the Governor and the Legislature of Wisconsin: 
Gentlemen: —The Commissioners of Fisheries of the State of 
Wisconsin, appointed in pursuance of a law of this State, have the 
honor to submit this, their second annual report, for the past cur¬ 
rent year. The law does not make it a part of our duty to make 
the report, hut we [deem it proper to acquaint you with our pro¬ 
ceedings under our commission, so that you may be fully advised 
as to what we are doing with the funds placed at our disposal. 
In case the commission should be continued, as it no doubt will be 
under some form, we think that it should be placed upon the same 
footing with the other institutions of the State, and the Commis¬ 
sioners be required to make an annual report for the fiscal year end¬ 
ing 30th of September, in each year. This would secure uniform¬ 
ity in accounts, and the printing of transactions to be placed in 
the hands of the legislature at the commencement of the session. 
Now, we are dependent upon the action of the legislature in the 
nature of a joint resolution to get our report printed, and last win¬ 
ter, weeks elapsed before we had a hearing upon it. 
We are happy to say that the public mind is fast becoming edu¬ 
cated on the subject under consideration. Newspapers and stand¬ 
ard periodicals devote much of their valuable space in giving infor¬ 
mation on this subject. We should have been glad, in this report, 
to have given complete statistics as to the extent of the fish-interest 
in Wisconsin, but the compiling of complete information on that 
subject would require much labor and time, and we have not felt at 
liberty, from the small appropriation in our hands, to incur the 
necessary expense. This should be done without unnecessary de- 
la} T , and as one of our Commissioners, (Dr. Hoy,) in the opinion of 
his associates, is peculiarly fitted for that task, we hope it may be 
done sometime during the coming season. We give such informa¬ 
tion on the subject as we have been able to obtain, and the extent 
of the fisheries at a few points on the lake. 
