The operations in fish culture were on the same general lines as in the past, and your Commission is pleased to say that the fish at the State hatchery at Windsor Locks, have been singularly free from all disease during the past year.

All the fish are reared to fingerlings before being planted in the public waters of the State, and in doing this, it necessarily makes the percentage of the output look small. These small fish, during the early part of spring and summer, have a great many natural enemies, as well as being subjected to attacks of various diseases, thereby causing a great loss among them. However, the final results of stocking the streams with fingerling fish, are far more satisfactory.

Your Commissioners of Fisheries and Game, in presenting to the Governor and your Honorable Body this fourth biennial report, are confident that the State of Connecticut is possessed of valuable property for the artificial propagation of fish, and is in every point second to none in the whole country.

The State hatchery at Windsor Locks, consisting of sixteen acres of land, was first operated in 1899, and it is ideally located, for Kettle brook supplies the water for a portion of the pools in which some of the trout are kept, while great bubbling springs, send a large supply of clear, cool, almost absolutely pure water into the others.

The hatchery is in a little wooded valley, through which Kettle brook rambles, and the hatching house is on its northern banks, with the pools in its front and rear. There are in all twenty-three of these pools; some are forty by eighteen feet, and about two feet deep, while others are smaller. The old pools on Kettle brook below the hatching house have been removed, the ground graded, and three deep pools built for the brood fish, one being fitfy-six feet long and eighteen feet wide.

The dam on Kettle brook has been rebuilt in a permanent manner, with a wasteway on the south end, where surplus water is carried through a ditch, away from the hatchery and pools.

On the back and sides of the four main springs, which supply the hatching house during the incubation period, and the balance of the time a large number of the rearing pools, we have had a protection constructed by driving posts in the

ground, plank nailed on to the proper height and banked up with dirt, forming a ditch graded to carry all surface water away from the springs, thus removing all danger of a possible contamination by surface water entering from off the high

hills.

Six small nursery pools were built during the fall of 1901, and they are in line with the large pools which take the supply from the best springs on the plant.

The practice is followed during the hot weather of giving shade to all of the pools where the small fry are kept, by placing boards a few feet from the surface of the water, and it is wonderful in its results, the way the fry congregate under the boards to escape the scorching effects of the hot

sun.

A commodious, well arranged house has been built for the superintendent of the hatchery. It stands near the main entrance to the hatchery grounds, on the highway, from which a view is to be had of the whole plant. Water is suppled to the house by a hydraulic ram, forcing a continuous stream of pure, cold water from one of the bountiful and excellent springs of the hatchery.

The practical usefulness of the State hatchery, is not confined to the hatching and rearing of trout only.

We have planted in the tributary waters of the Farmington, Scantic and Salmon rivers, 60,200 Atlantic salmon, and in many of the inland lakes of the State, there has been distributed and planted 4,100 land-locked salmon. These fish were raised from eggs that were assigned the Connecticut Commission by the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. They were placed in the hatching troughs in January and February, where they were hatched, and at the proper time transferred to the rearing pools, where they were fed on ground liver the same as brook trout, until they attained the fingerling size, and were planted during the month of November.

The lake trout hatched nicely, and we were anticipating 40,000 fingerlings to plant the past fall. They thrived and grew satisfactorily until soon after being transferred to rearing pools, when they began to disappear very mysteriously. No dead fish were to be found any where, and the superintendant was unable to account for the loss. However the

cause of the trouble was finally located, after drawing the water out of the pool several times, in the side where there was found a cavity made by a hidden spring, of dimentions large enough to hold a dozen or more yearling trout.

The stock of brood fish, now at the State hatchery, consists of two thousand five hundred, two and three year brook trout, one thousand five hundred yearling, two thousand fingerling brook trout, and seven hundred rainbow trout.

The importance of artificial propagation of fish can not be gainsaid. A plentitude of shad means the purchase at a low figure by the people of the State, and the consequent revival of the fishing industry and the employment of many people.

Connecticut is the only State where shad fry are retained in ponds five or six months before being released into the rivers. The success of the Joshuatown retaining ponds on the Connecticut river has been demonstrated and proved beyond a question of a doubt by the steady increase in the catch of shad from year to year.

Prior to the establishment of these ponds millions of shad fry were hatched and planted in the coves and tributaries of the rivers by the Fish Commissioners, notwithstanding, the yearly catch of the great food fish of this State grew less and less each year. The smallest catch of shad on record was in the year 1892, there being only 18,965 returned by the fishermen, while the catch for the year 1901 is recorded as

124,947.

Your Commission are steadfast in the belief, and are confident that had it not been for these ponds the Connecticut river shad would now be such a luxury – if not wholly extinct that only the very wealthy people could possibly afford to buy them, and our fishermen would keenly feel the loss of the thousands of dollars which they now get for their season's catch of shad.

We procured from the United State Commission, in 1901 and planted in the Joshuatown ponds, 5,978,000 shad fry and again in May 1902, only 3,000,000 fry could be obtained for the ponds on the Connecticut river. These shad when they have attained to the fingerling size about the last of October or first of November, are driven out into the river, there to follow

their natural instincts-to seek their own welfare-and the survivors to return to the river, full grown shad, in three years' time.

The, heretofore unheard of, extra large shad weighing from seven to eight and nine pounds apiece and which has long been the hope and ambition of the fishermen to catch, has been realized, and their extra size is rightfully attributed to the artificial propagation.

Of Peck's Pond in the Town of Stratford, on the Housatonic river, we have great expectations in the near future, but at the present time we cannot give such a favorable account, from the fact the pond was first put in operation in 1899. Since that time, your Commission has personally supervised the planting of about 8,500,000 shad fry in this pond, all of which were procured from the United States Commission.

This pond also, has been drawn off annually in October, and the young shad driven out into the Housatonic river. Three years have now passed since the first shad fry were planted in Peck's Pond, and we are confident that according to the natural habits and instincts of this fish, they will be found returning to the Housatonic river which had become entirely barren of shad.

The State leased the pond of Mr. Frederick J. Wheeler for a term of ninety nine years, and while he is bound by the lease for that length of time, the State has the option of terminating the contract upon six months notice at any time.

Peck's Pond is an ideal location for a retaining pond for young fry, to replenish the Housatonic river as in days gone by, with our great food fish. Were it possible to remove all the foul fish from the pond, and the entire length of the brook, we are confident that better results would be obtained toward the increase of shad in the Housatonic river to justify the continuance of the expense of planting fry each year.

The United States Commission in a letter of May 30th says in part-"That the work of this (U. S.) Commission has been very disappointing this year, but they are very anxious to be. especially liberal to the Connecticut Commission, because they are making special efforts to raise shad to the fingerling stage before distributing them."

That the introduction and artificial propagation of shad is successful, we have only to look to the Pacific coast to see it

thoroughly demonstrated. Fry from the Atlantic coast were transported across the continent and planted in rivers that had never before contained a shad. The result now is, that, shad have multiplied and increased to such an extent from this one plant, that they sell for five cents a piece.

The California Commission in their report of 1899-1900 say "the delicious and abundant shad . . . which are the food of the wealthy of other States, comes cheaply to the humbliest of our citizens. If this Commission in thirty years has accomplished nothing further than the introduction and propagation of these species, it has justified all the expenditure that the State has made in its support . . . they are increasing year by year.

Your Commission would respectfully submit for your worthy consideration that a retaining pond for young shad be established on the Farmington river, which has every natural advantage for rearing shad. We feel that the economic results of the propagation of shad so far accomplished and the lines of work that are at present being developed, fully justify this recommendation.

We would renew the recommendation as set fourth in the Third Biennial Report which said, “as an auxiliary help to the work of the Windsor Locks hatchery and the retaining ponds leased by the State, your Commission would recommend a close season on some of the tributaries of the large streams. There are no doubt, various streams throughout Connecticut particularly adapted to putting such a measure to a practical test. A law of this character, if enforced with the same degree of efficiency with which our fish and game laws are enforced, would work wonders in the rivers where fish abound. These tributaries as is well known, are haunts of the small trout, where they live till they become more pretentious fish when they take to deeper and wider waters."

There can be propagated, to a good advantage and at a comparatively small cost, many of our native food fish for inland waters, and more promptly supply our inhabitants with both food and sport, by building a system of pools or small ponds at either the State hatchery or the retaining ponds, where black bass could be reared to supply the many demands made on your Commission during the past two years.

Black bass have never been artificially hatched like trout, shad, pike perch and white fish. The usual way is to confine