Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-27
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

sirable for sportsmen to cooperate by
taking these little f1ngerlingS and keep
ing them in club kindergartenS until
they had grown 80 big" and could be
turned loose with fighting chance to
bite back at any cannibal fish that
tried to swallow them.
The Government and the several
States maintain hatcheries to incubate
the fish eggs, for hatcheries require
high skill and large investments, which
clubs cannot give. but then it is up
to the Sportsnen to take the f1ngerlings
and develop them into self-reliance as
3-inch fish. Many such nurseries
have been created, more are needed, II
We are to keep up the supply, against
the widened range of sportslnen. equip
ped with automobiles, etc. Fingerhngs
are supplied to clubs free.
In comparison, no other sport is equal
to that of fishing, says the President.
Il am for fish! Fishing is not so
much getting fish as it is state Of
mind and lure of the human soul into
refreshment. But it is too long between
bites; we must have more fish in pro-
portion to the water"
X X
Where the Government has missed
out In the present struggle of Congress
farmers is the failure of the President
to tell his fish story and let it go at
that. Farmers can make more profit of
an acre of pond, stocked with fish, than
they can off an acre of wheat, corn or
cotton. President Hoover merely said
I'm for fish" He did not tell farmers
to plant more fish and raise less
Well. he might have given sound adj
vice If he had related the story of one
farmer near Leadville, Colo, who owns
300 acres. of which 125 acres are under
water and his net profits run from
$4,000 to $4,000. Talk about relief for
that farmer? He let's city folks fish all
they like on his farm, but he charges
them so cents pound for what they
eaten. No drought ever bothers him,
There are similar fish farms" in Penn
ssylvania, Long Island and New Eng
land, but on a smaller scale.
In bulletin mo. $3.50 issued BY the
Bureau of Fisheries it is stated:
las a substitute for meat, fish offer
many advantages. Pound for pound, It
contains as much protein as meat, and
in some cases more"
While it is proverbially unsafe to
count your chickens before they are
Matched" the bulletin makes the fol-
acre:
1T is difficult to estimate the ca
pacity of ponds for the various stages
in the growth of fish. 1t depends for the
most part upon the amount of appro-
pirate food available. A 2-acre pond
producing 10000 oneyear old black bass
from to 6 inches long would be q
remarkably successful enterprise, and
10000 one and half to two inch year.
ling crappie or sunf1sh to an acre of
water would be likewise notable. These
numbers have been realized and in some
instances exceeded, but the average re-
suits are doubtless much smaller.
The stock will be decreased through
cannibalism at least so per cent by the
end of the second year, and the year
l1ngs held over will consume a large
percentage of the fry Matched during
the second and succeeding years of OPP
erations. Enough should survive, how
ever, to maintain the adult stock at the
maximum number that the pond will
support"
Another bulletin (No. 955) tells how
large the fish might become under ideal
conditions:
THE largest brook trout taken in
American waters whose weight has been
lClAdOiy dutAIcIlIlCdGSQ was from Hdnge-
ly Lake, Me-; its weight was 1917
pounds; while from the Nepigon River,
a Canadian tributary to Lake Superior,
an example weighing 14A pounds Is
recorded
No wonder that Mr. Hoover describes
fishing as a state of mind!' Frantic!
According to Commissioner O'Malley
of the United States Fish Hatchery
they are producing at the Fairport.
Iowa, station, on 6.3 acres, 44,833 large
mouth black bass annually produce
ton running from 1000 to 10000 fish
per acre. Also 1900 small-mouth black
bass per acre, and over 10000 per acre
OF crappies 2 inches long. (What crap
game in the city compares with that?)
And OF bluegill sunfish they get 57,770
per acre
When will modern American farmers
read their Bibles and exclairn with st.
Peter, II go a-1shing!"
\ X
Americans eat only 1876 pounds of
fish per capita in year; Canadians
eat 20 pounds; English eat So pounds;
Scandinavians from 80 to So pounds,
and Japanese 55 pounds a year Mark
Twain directed the young author who
asked how much fish he should eat
for his brains sake, that a whale or
two would suffice What would happen
to us american wiseacres If all should
Urn from bootleggcrs to fisheries "a