The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-31
Piscicnltural Protection.


From The N. y World.
The Fish Commissioners from Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connec-
ticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, together
with sundry professional and private fish
breeders and amateurs, met in convention at
the Fifth Avenue Hotel on last Tuesday even
ing. 1t may be promised that these delegates
generally are gentlemen of culture beyond
pisciculture, and that they thoroughly under
stand what they are talking about in this con-
vention. The general object, too, which they
have in view is an interesting one to read and
talk about. There is something fairly fasci-
mating in the unlimited piscatorial production
which the fsh-farmers' programme promises
the actual performance in our own day of
the miracle of the five loaves and the few
small fishes a thousand fold in athousand
places. We are even told that shad, instead
OF being scarce, shall be so plentiful that they
can be spread as manure on farms. The
people are to be fed to the full with fish. The
musical horn which is now blown in certain
wards on Friday only shall make the whole
metropolis melodious every morning in the
week, and fish will be so plentiful and so
cheap as to be fairly forced upon every table
at every meal.
Now, this piscatorial promise, which would
vitality concern community of cats, seems of
very little account to the general public. It
mainly interests Mr.. Seth Green and other
successful pisciculturists, who have made the
matter of artifcinl fish breeding a study and
decided profit, and who should not ask State
legislatures to pass laws to protect and appro-
pirate moneys to encourage what is a purely
private enterprise. But we are told that
salmon and trout are nearly out OF market
and are held so highly as to be beyond the
reach OF all but the rich, ard that shad which
were once sold for twenty five cents the fish,
now command one dollar. Well, what then
yuh iph Uoo pl1 ~ F1,-
dollars the barrel, brings sixteen dollars now,
and poultry is sold for nearly as much per
pound as chickens used to bring per pair
Shall we, therefore, have protection for the
poultry producers and grain-raisers of the
country If Mr.. Seth Green or any other man
can produce salmon, shad, and trout by
the millions, it is clearly for his
profit to do so, and that without the
aid of the Government or the State. This
protection" business after being fairly run
into the ground, Is now extending to the
water. By-and-by the clans of Coha5set
will cry out for protection; the porgies of
Massachusetts Bay will set forth that,
whereas they are ignomniously oarted afeld
to fructify the bean crop, the porgy of San
Francisco is esteemed so great a luxury as TO
bring twenty-five cents per pound, and pro-
lection will be demanded to bring the Eastern
fish up to the san Franciscan price and
standard; the Oregon and Californian salmon
will protest against their own cheapness as
compared with the dearness of the Maine pro-
duct, and call for protection. Clearly, if the
Fish Commissioners can do what they say
they can do-if they can fill our houses as
well as our rivers with fsh-they should
set about it. But they confess that they can
not do it without legislative protection and
pecuniary encouragement, and the extracts
which we printed on Tuesday show that with
these things fish-farmipg is, as yet, failure:
the people will not obey the fish laws the DOR
porations refuse to cut holes in their dams
the spawn put into the Connecticut river by
State appropriations came to several thousand
dollars, and came literally to nothing else.
On the other hand, the reports of individual
enterprises in pisciculture are highly favora-
BILE; the fish. farmers raise spawn and small
fry, and sell the same to ''the amateurs and
others interested in pisciculture" at a very
great profit, and they do not need our advice
to keep on doing so for an indefinite period.
But this business of asking "protection" by
means of laws and public money in the way of
appropriations" to carry on the fish busi-
ness, is wholly impolitic and certainly i'm
proper, and if it is encouraged we shall next
have the ehicken-rsisers of New Jersey and
the bean-bakers of Massachusetts, calling con-
ventiOns to demand protection.