Some years later there began a special investigation of the reproduction of mussels, which resulted in the methods of artificial propagation as developed by Prof. Lefevre and Prof. Curtis, of the University of Missouri, in association with the Bureau. The Government then established the Fairport Biological Station to engage in the propagation of mussels and the studies of mussel problems, besides exercising wider activities in fishery investigations. For a number of years field investigations relating to the distribution, habits, and conditions of life of the mussels have been prosecuted by the staff and associates of the Bureau throughout the Mississippi Basin.
For the first two years at the Fairport station mussel propagation was carried on in an experimental way, but beginning with 1912 the practical operations have been conducted upon as large a scale and over as wide a territory as the available resources permitted. During the past two years mussels have been propagated chiefly in the Mississippi River from Lake Pepin, in Minnesota, to New Boston, Ill.; in the Wabash River in Indiana, and in the White and Black Rivers of Arkansas. During the year ended June 30, 1913, about 150,000,000 glochidia, or young mussels, were put out, and in the first half of the present fiscal year that number is fully equaled. Such figures appear large. It is not difficult by the methods of propagation to handle considerable numbers of glochidia; indeed, it is necessary to work on an ample scale, for in mussel propagation, as in most forms of fish culture, what we can now do is to aid the young over the most critical period in their life history, after which they must be left to continue the struggle for existence by their own efforts.
We therefore plan to work in such a way that, even with the liberal discount that nature will surely apply to our returns, there may be left a real measure of benefit gained without undue cost. Many of the young will be lost from falling upon unsuitable bottoms and from many other unfavorable conditions, such as confront every young mussel in nature with more or less frequency. We would like to remove all of the unfortunate conditions productive of loss, both to the mussels that we put out and to those that are propagated entirely by natural means; but this, of course, is not possible. There are, however, artificial conditions which do injury to the younger mussels, and it is both desirable and practicable to prevent such damage as far as can be done reasonably.