The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-27
A SPORTSMAN'S VIEW
The Fish Undergraduates Get No
Benefit.

tempt TO pTy fTOL0SSOI DyCLC lOO1N
from his job as state fish and game
! warden, it seems proper that L make
plain my attitude toward PROFESSOR
Dyche. AS one of the men who was IN
Strumental in the eSta blishment OF
state fish hatchery and as sports
man. / am intensely interested in the
practical and successful management.
of the state fish and game department.
! incidentally, in common with thou
| sands of other KansanS who know the
! facts concerning the fish and game de-
| partment | am dissatisfied With FRO
| fessor Dyche's management of that de-
| partment. Ny opposition to Professor
| Dyche is not personal. nor is 1t COM
| plicated by politics. l would feel the
| same about any man who has squan-
| dered the money of the sportsmen OF
| the state, and who has made no effort
| to enforce the game laws and protect
| the game.
| August ,, 1872 the Kansas State
| Sportsmen' association, in a meeting
| at Hutchinson. after discussing news
| paper claim made by Professor Dyche
| in the Topeka State Journal, that he
| had distributed $4,000 grown-up fish.
passed the following resolution:
We the sportsmen, would like to
ask to whom and where these '9,ooo
fish have been distributed. We are I'M
able to find other than a couple of
places where anything but blue gill sun
fish and bullhead catfish have been CIV
en-. After thorough investigation, we
| find that / 600 two or three year old
game fish will constitute a carload, and
as per the statement in the State Jour-
nal where it claims $4,000 have been
distributed. this would mean seventy
five carloads, therefore we consider this
statement entirely false, and no such
conditions have ever existed under Pro-
| fessor Dyche's administration.
1 have read Professor Dyche's report
| and he does not state where he planted
| a fish to whom they We're consigned.
| Reports of other fish and game wardens
| so state.
Is Disappointed.
| More than a year ago Kansas sports
men We're demanding a change in the
/ policy of the fish and game warden.
/ Personally, I hoped for such a change
under the administration of Governor
| Hodges, and [ have no disposition to
disguise the fact that in common with
/ thousands of other Kansas sportsmen,
| l am sappointed that there has not
been a change. I am convinced that
! there has been a stupendous waste of
public funds in the construction of the
biggest fish hatchery in the world
at Pratt.
1t has cost $119,749.99 to MAINTAIN
! and improve CD the hatchery during
the two years ending July last and
the records show the distribution of
but two cars of fish during that time
and Professor Dyche has been spend
ing money like a drunken sailor. Just
what Professor Dyche has been do
ing during that time, or what condi-
lions are at the hatchery now | am
unable to learn from Professor
Dyche's statements because 1 do not
know which of his utterances to ac-
! cept. A year ago he claimed to have
distributed during the preceding sea-
son 200 fish. These fish were all
raised in the seven ponds that consti-
tuted the original hatchery. the new
hatchery ponds not having been COM
pleted.
July 16. 1913. in an interview pub
1ished in the Lawrence Gazette, Pro-
fessor Dyche said: I'VE expect to
start the fish out again about Sep
TENDER /, and we should have fish
enough to keep it going all the time.
If we can save 10 per cent. of the fish
that are growing there now we will
have so car loads to distribute 1t
is now nearly October l and the fish
car has not yet been started out.
Dyche Alone Had Not Lost Faith.
August 10, 1913, Professor Dyche
stated in the Topeka State journal
that he had lost no fish at the hatch
cry during the summer. However, in
an interview published in the Topeka
Capital, August 10, 1913, Professor
Dyche said that he then had 80 car
loads of fish at the hatchery ready
for distribution. If 10 per cent. of
the fish at the hatchery July 6 would
make so cars, and Professor Dyche |
had only 80 cars August 10, he GER
tainly must have lost 40 cars between
July 16 and August 10, despite his
statement August 10 that he had lost
no fish.
In a personal letter written to a To-
peka friend and published in the To-
peka Journal of August Is, Professor
Dyche said: Our ponds are not ex-
actly going dry; however, we are ak
ing all the water We can get and some
of the ponds in the east part of the j
hatchery are two or three feet below
standard. but We still have three or I
four feet of water in the low ponds"
The following day, August ~. n repre- |
sensitive of the Topeka State Journal |
visited the hatchery. To this represen-
tative Professor Dyche said: There /
are at least one million gallons of wa
ter emptied into the big ponds daily /
through the mains from the Nirnescah /.
river and we are using about one-half !
of it. Hard to reconcile with lie pre- !
lessons statement the preceding day |
that he was taking all the water We |
can get isn't it?
What the Reporter Found
August 10, the representative of the |
topeka State Journal examined all the |
ponds. measuring the depth of the wa
ter in each. He found eight ponds en- |
t1rely dry. eight others so nearly dry |
as to be out of commission, Is ponds !
With normal water supply and Sc av-
eraging from three to five feet below |
normal water supply. Professor Dyche |
has not questioned the accuracy of this ,
nnd1ng- Yet with Is ponds dry or prac- |
tically so, the preceding day he wrote |
that we still have three or four feet of
water in the low ponds.'' How deep are
the ponds, and how much water did
the ponds which were five feet below
normal have in them when the State
Journal reporter made his examina-
ton?
IN attempting to explain the water |
shortage to the newspaper repreSen-