138 
It has been the custom to seine thousands of these pirates from the 
water in the spring when they congregate on their spawning grounds. 
But this is an expensive operation which has yielded no return. During 
the past year the commission has made some investigation looking toward 
the turning of this fish to some profitable account. It was found that 
properly treated with a weak brine and smoked, the garfish approaches 
in edible qualities the expensive sturgeon. This year it will be the pur- 
pose of the commission to try and popularize smoked garfish, so that 
commercial fishermen will find it profitable to take great quantities of 
this fish from the waters. 
Commissioner H. V. Meeteren in an article on the despised garfish, 
published in the American Field, has this to say about the garfish: 
Everyone who is interested in fish has a great contempt for the voracious 
garfish, and those interested in fish culture and fish conservation have been 
trying for years to devise a way of ridding out waters of this fish pirate. 
Last year the Illinois Game and Fish Conservation Commission spent $1,000 
on the Illinois River alone, catching and destroying garfish. 
In some places the expedient has been tried of paying the commercial 
fisherman a per capita price for each garfish caught and placed upon the 
banks. Where this fee is not offered, the commercial fisherman throws 
back into the water the garfish that are taken in his net. And still the 
garfish multiply and wax fat on young bass and other fishes, and those inter- 
ested in our fishes wonder what can be done with this fish-eating rascal. 
It is possible that there is a solution in sight, for it has been demon- 
strated that the garfish is, after all, a good fish. I made this discovery 
recently while looking over Lake and McHenry counties for a likely place 
to locate a fish hatchery. I found a few people in that section of the State 
who had learned to treat the garfish so as to make of this pirate a very 
acceptable morsel. In fact, I found it an item of food that falls in the 
delicatessen group. The treatment of this fish, as practiced by a few natives 
in the northern part of the State, is very simple, and when the method 
becomes well known, and people get accustomed to eating this prepared fish, 
the gar will have a value that will make his pursuit profitable, with the 
result that there will be a great reduction of garfish in our waters. 
The method of preparing the garfish is as follows: 
The garfish is skinned, given a light pickle for three days, and then 
smoked with green hickory. I am not prepared to say that smoked garfish 
equals smoked sturgeon, but I do not hesitate to put it in a class very near 
to smoked sturgeon. It will be recalled that sturgeon was used only as a 
fertilizer some years ago. Today smoked sturgeon retails at about 75 cents 
a pound. 
Who will say that smoked garfish, now a despised pirate, will not soon 
have a place in our system of food economy? It may not be in the class of 
‘sturgeon, but at half the price it would find buyers and pay the fisherman 
well for catching and preparing them for market. 
We must bear in mind that the food problem of the world never was 
so serious as it is at the present time; much food that was despised or care- 
lessly handled is now given careful attention. We need every pound ot 
food that we can get hold of. Meat has been steadily advancing for years, 
and the probability is that it will continue to advance in value. 
If by any means we can add the garfish to our food supply list, it will 
prove a national blessing. The garfish is not an attractive looking creature; 
neither is the sturgeon; but if they “eat well” what of it? The garfish is 
no scavenger. The best fish in the waters are none too good for his particu- 
lar taste. He ought to be good to eat if he tastes well. 
POLUTION OF OUR WATERS. 
Many of our streams and some of our lakes are so badly poluted that 
fish are destroyed in large numbers as a consequence. In many instances 
