, 1896-12-24
SOMETHING ABOUT FISH.
GUSTAVE SCHNITGER RENDERS
HIS REPORT To THE
GOVERNOR.
A Handsome and Complete Document,
Covering the Subject of Fish Cult
ure in an Able and Comprehensive
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS for the
Yea 1897 Estimated.

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. for the
Year 1897 Estimated.
The biennial report of the Wyoming
hsh commissioner is in the hands OF
Governor Richards. 1t makes a nest
pamphlet of "a pages, and is full of
meat Tor fish from beginning to end.
Many excellent cuts lend beauty to
the document. the first to greet the eye
being an excellent likeness of the
handsome commissioner. Hon. Gustave
Schnftger. A picture of the state hatch
cry occupies a full page, and another
page presents a good interior view OF
he main building. Then we have "A
d~ehneation of several speckled beau
ties. a view of the branch hatchery at
Sheridan, and last. but not least. a pic
ture OF the able superintendent of the
Sheridan branch hatchery. Mr.. S. e
Land.
Commissioner SChnitger makes sev-
eral recommendations to the legisla-
ture, which are of great interest at
this time to all who delight in casting
a fly upon the waters.
Within the past two years he has
been unable to supply the demands
made for fry to stock the public waters.
although the output was greater dur-
ing these two years than it has ever
been in the past. During the past six
years 3,S23 600 young trout have beer
distributed. The method Of planting
trout after they have been fed from -four
to six months in the hatchery has prov.
ed most satisfactory. In this connec
tiOn h commissioner says:
Knowing that the successful stock
ing of waters with suitable fish requires
much intelligent thought. consideration
and experience. | was careful to inves-
tigate the result of such planting from
year to yea | do not know of a single
instance where fish have died after
having been turned loose in the natural
waters. This plan then proves more
satisfactory in giving practical results
than h system adopted by many OF
the trout culturists and commissioners
Of h eastern states. who plant the
young trout as fry before the eggsac
Is absorbed. This is done to save the
expense of feeding and rearing the
young trout and by some is thought to
be nor economical. But in comparing
results obtained by the work of the
commissioners of the Rocky mountain
states, with those of eastern statese. in
stocking the public waters with trout,
l find the fed fry system of planting
gives the best results and quickest re-
turns. N~inety-five per cent of the
young trout so planted grow to be adult
fish, whereas the fry with sacs are in a
helpless condition when planted and
remain so for many days, until they
learn to swim and feed and rustic for
themselves. In this hampered condi-
ton the fry with sacs are exposed to
all the dangers of their natural enemies,
such as wading birds, reptiles and rod
ents. According to the statements OF
scientists. the trout when left to repro
duce naturally seldom if ever succeed
in producing their kind to survive to
adults in greater numbers thar 10 per
cent of the eggs Matched and it is furth-
er admitted that the greatest destruc-
ton of these fish takes place when the
trout are first Matched and in a help
less condition. This fact alone should
be sufficient evidence to convince the
most skeptical that the old and fruitless
method should be abandoned of plant
ing trout fry before they are able to
shift for themselves by scattering out
in hiding places way from the danger
of all their natural enemies"
BY observation and experience the
commissioner has found that the east
ern brook trout IS. F~ontinalis), the
jeweled trout, the gamesome fish that
delight the angler, who understands by
experience the fruits of the art, has
proved beyond a question to be the best
Of all varieties introduced for rapidly
p%opulating the public waters.
Two years ago the legislature re-
pealed the law compelling the owners
Of bitches to keep up screens at the
head of the bitches to prevent fish from
running to destruction through these
waterways. If the screen law cannot
be enforced, on account of the act work
ing a hardship on the ditch-owDer, then
there should be a law enacted COMPEL,
ing the ditch owner to see that his ditch
is not shut entirely down in the fall of
the year, when there are fish in the
ditch. When a ditch is partly closed
down, trout will invariably travel up
stream until deeper water is found in
the natural stream.
This state. contains 1000 square
miles of water, distributed over an area
OF 1856 square miles of land, all suit
able for the life of the trout. This 1000
square miles of water, reduced to acres, |
gives us GAO, 900 acres of water and each
acre will sustain $500 trout or a total
OF 1000, 600, 900, which, at 8 years old,
will weigh one pound each. making a
total of 1000, 900, 900 pounds of trout.
At a value of 20 cents per pound this
supply of fish would amount to the
magnificent sum of 1920, 900 900.