DOES IT PAY TO STOCK STREAMS?

Otago Witness, Issue 1834, 14 January 1887, Page 27

DOES IT PAY TO STOCK STREAMS?

In reply to this question an American paper says : — Six years *go there was not a salmon trout in Sylvan Lake, near New Hamburgh, Dutchess County. At that time a large number of salmon trout fry from the State' Fish Hatchery, at Mumford, were put into the lake. This week P. A. M. Van Wyck, an enthusiastic sportsman, and a gentleman who has. given great attention to the culture of fish and the stocking of the streams in his section of the State, writes Monroe A. Green, that, June 2, William Ott, an engineer on the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad, caught in the lake a salmon trout which weighed 131b, was 32iin in length, depth ll|in, and width s£in. Of ~a good many trout caught in the lake lately .this is the largest one. All pisciculturists are gratified at this evidence of the utility of the stocking of the streams of the State with fish fry.

From close observation of the subject I am convinced there is hardly a river or lake which is not benefited by the introduction of fresh blood. As an instance of this, it is a recognised fact that trout fry, such as Levenensis, turned into the Thames, where plenty of food is obtainable, rapidly grow to a considerably larger size than in their native water — Loch Leven. I believe that even the small brook trout of Devonshire, &c., introduced to rivers' where large trout are indigenous, would, in .their offspring, gradually develop into fish- of infujifely heavier calibre than thsir ancestors.

„ ■ The great thing .'to make sure of, before introducing fish to fresh waters, is that the general conditions of their new habitat are suitable to their requirements. Where such is not the case they never really thrive, and, before long, are pretty certain to die out and become extinct. — Land and Water.