The Washington herald., 1912-08-25

4
| To create new races of food and game
fishes, bigger and better for eating than
lany now in existence. is the newest scien-
tific project Of the government
J For this purpose fishery experiment
station is to be established near Wash
/ ington-the first Of its kind thus far
known in this country. Congress has
been liberal in starting and maintaining
fish hatcheries in all parts of the United
States, but biological plant of the kind
here considered is a novelty. In every
State of the union there is an agricul-
turai experiment station, but no State
has a station for investigating practical
problems In fish breeding.
What selective breeding has done for
poultry, cattle. horses, and dogs, It will
do for BASES. trouts. and other fishes.
and by similar methods. It is simply a
| matter Of choosing for mating purposes
! parent fishes that possess characteristics
which II Is desirable to accentuate. For
example. where the BASES are concerned,
! suitable pairs have merely to be intro
duced into a pond, and they will build
nests and attend to the rest of the bust
J ness for themselves. AS for trout. prac-
| tically anything can be done with them.
Commercial trout raisers already breed
for rapid growth, size, shape. and color.
But the Fisheries Bureau can do to much
greater advantage on a large scale what
| they attempt only on a small scale.
Seek Wider Range.
One of the most important objects of
the work will be to adapt desirable
species TO a wider range of conditions,
thus making them available for propa-
To,
greater area. For instance. 1t may be
practicable to develop trouts that will
live in warm water OF sluggish streams
in the Southern States. Or the experts
may obtain a race of salmon adapted
TO the muddy waters of the Mississippi
Many years ago 100000 Pacific sal
mon were planted in the Mississippi.
but the experiment was failure be-
cause they found conditions in that
great river unsuitable.
The Pacific salmons offer attractive
opportunity for cross-breedIng. II is
proposed. for one thing. to cross the
dog salmon, which is now OF minor i'm
portance commercially. with the much
esteemed 'sock-eye," in order to obtain
fish combining the delicious favor of
the latter with the size of the former
This experiment will involve, to start
with, the marking of the progeny for
purposes of observation: for the young
ones go to sea and remain there three
or four years before returning as adults
to the river. Hence II will be neces-
sary, after Matching the cross-bred
eggs artifcially, TO tag or brand the
fry in some way before setting them
at liberty. This being done, the re-
turning adults can be identified, and
an accurate idea obtained of the results
OF the crosses
A simple mode OF treatment is TO
brand the young salmon with a red
hot metal stamp. This can be done in
such a way as to iniict no material
injury. and the pain inflicted is mini
mixed by introducing a small amount
ing the try" Incidentally. the drug
stupefies them and prevents them from
injuring themselves by struggling.
Much Expected of Finnies.
Much. It is expected. will be accom-
plished with fnny species. which. up TO
the present time. have never been sub
jected to artificial culture. Among these
are the sunfishes. which are among the
best and most widely distributed OF our
food fishes. They are excellent game.
and tn. largest of them, commonly known
as the ''bluegill.' or blue sunfish." at
tains a length of about a foot. There Is
gaod reason to believe that scientific
breeding might increase its size to two
or even three feet.
There are more than a dozen species
of sunfishes. all of them prominently
adapted 10 pond culture. All of them
are nest builders, being OF the family OF
the BASES. 1t would be easy. therefore.
to cross-breed them, and there is good
reasan to suppose that they could be
made to weigh four times or six times
as much as the largest specimens do to-
day. Think what has been accomplished
with poultry. Compare the little Jungle
fowl from which all our farm-yard
chickens are descendedD with the huge
buff cochin" standing two feet high.
Why should not equally striking results
be obtained by the scientific breeding of
fishes?
The yellow perch. chiefly a river fish.
might be most profitably developed by
There Is no reason why
We should not produce a race of this
species two or three feet long. Its flesh
is delicious, and. thus magnified n size,
Il would be most valuable froI a market
The same might be said of
the white perch. which. though most cam
monty found in rivers. does well in
land-locked lakes and ponds. There are
small lakes in New England that contain
white perch weighing two pounds apiece.
Plentiful in stream all along the At
lantic coast is the 'dace"-a game little
fish with scales like FURNISHED gold. 1t
is very good to eat, its only disadvantage
being its small size. To make II bigger.
however, is simply a matter OF breeding.
And the same thing might be said OF
many of the minnows. But there are
some species of minnows that are big
enough already to be valuable. One of
them, native to some of the Pacific Coast
rivers, attains a weight OF eighty pounds.
and another the "squawfish." or "Sacra-
mento pike is four feet long.
Feels In Demand.
Eels are always scarce in our markets,
a steady demand for
them. We ought to grow them in ponds,
as they do in Germany. They offer an
excellent means of utilizing the nutri-
tive material of our inland waters. their
principal food being insect larvae. snails.
water feas and bugs and minnows. To
breed them is out OF the question. be-
cause they spawn in the depths of the
pecan. but young ones may be caught
In unlimited numbers as they run up
the streams in the spring. Transferred
10 ponds and fed they grow rapidly and
to great size. The Germans import mil |
ions Of the fry for this purpose from
England and Italy. planting them and
rearing them to marketable weight.
A fish Is an exceedingly plastic Or
that Is to say, of eN-
modification through breed |
ng Everybody knows for instance, |