The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-04-09

he happy world go by
There's sunshine smiling on each lip
And heaming in each eye.
The mocking bird, the merry child,
The softly humming bee
Their hearts are full OF sunshine.
Why was none of il for me?
Oh, twas not meant for me, the joy
That other mortalS know:
1t was not meant that | should bask
In sunshine here below,
But, when the gentle hand of death
Shall set my spirit Free
In heaven I'll find that God has made
Some sunshine, too, for me.
Culture of Fish.
LECTURE OF MIR. ROOSEVELT, OF NEW
YORK, BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE. OF
MARYLAND.
Mr.. Robert B. Roosevelt, Of the New
York Citizen and Eouad Table, delivered a
lecture on the culture of fish, before the
Legislature. Mr.. Roosevelt is one of the
commissioners of fisheries Of the State of
New York, and visited Annapolis on the
invitation Of the Governor of Maryland
The Legislature held a special but informal
session to hear the lecture, the object being
to ascertain what could be done to restore
the waters of the State, which had been
greatly depleted by everlasting, to their
original productiveness. The deterioration
Of shad, herring and oyster fisheries OF
Of l,f
idly as to cause serious alarm. and the
Legislature being extensively occupied in
considering remedies and propositions the
discourse was, as a matter of course, heard
with great interest by members OF the
body. There was also large number of
invited guests present. including Governor
Bowie and the ladies of his family. The
Hobbies were also crowded.
PROFITS OF PIsCICULTURE.
Mr.. Roosevelt was introduced by Speaker
Latrobe, and i'll the course of his lecture,
Which lasted over an hour and a half. fully
explained Tie process of fish culture, and
gave much interesting information in refer
ence to restoring Maryland fisheries to their
normal condition. Fish culture, he said,
in tie first place, pays rs well, if not bet
ter, than most occupations. He said that
the establishment Of Mr.. Seth Greene. of
Rochester, New York, produced ten thous-
and trout per day, and the clear profits
were ten thousand dollars a year, more
than twice the sum paid by the State of
quite number of othcr fish-hatching estab-
lishmcnts in full operation, giving in some
instances large remuneration to their pro
prietors. Among these he mentioned the
Furman, of Maspeth, Long Island Mr.
Kellogg, of Hartford, Conn, Stephen II.
Ainsworth, of West Bloomfield, New York.
Aaron S. Vail, of Smithtown. Long Island /:
Judge Tilden. of Lock Port, New York :;
Thaddeus Norris, the eminent writer on
fishiag and fish culture, at Asbury, New
Jersey: P. Fl. Christie, of Glove, Duchess
county, \. Y, jeremiah Comfort, Spring
Mills, Montgomery county, Pa, and BENZ.
kilburne, of Littleton, n. II.
FARMING AND FISH CULTURE.
The lecturer made a comparison between
farming and fish culture, and said that a
person could so into the one just as pl oft
ably as the other without experience, though
he would not advise an experiment in either
case. \ fish carries from ten thousand to
4 million eggs in its oviaries each of these
f,,1I ,f al; 81 l.. l..
productive as tie grain of wheat but in
practice not one in thousand hatches.-
Let farmer scatter his seed right and left
over his fields, on meadows and fallews, on
stony places and highways alike: let lin,
plow, before or after sowing, iHdiscrimi-
nately, and he will reap but scant harvest
and yet that is the way in which nature
sews with both vegetables and fish. And
great as is the difference between sucl
natural wastefulness and scientific agricul
ture. hundred fold greater is the differ
ence between the natural and artificial prop
agation Of the fruits of the water. As the
eva of the herring exceed in number the
kernels i'll an ear of wheat, SO much should
y
land culture.
FECJNDITY OF FISH.
To shew the comparative fecundity OF
fish, he said the yellow perch, weighing 81
ounces, spawns 9,943 eggs; the river smelt,
weighing ounces, spawns 25.14O eggs
the fresh water smelt spawns so. 0CO eggs
the shad spawns not less than $4,000 eggs.
He quoted from the last report of the COM
missoncrs of fisheries of Maine, by which
1t appeared that the issue Of a pair of sal
mon would in few years, if every egg
Matched, cover the entire State of Maine
three hundred feet deep with fish. That,
however, he thought might be pleasant
idea to New England where unsiphtly
rocks are the principal production of the
soil. No one would think of snch thing
but Yankee, one of that class which has
an inveterate desire for putting things top.
sy-turvy, and getting the wrong one on
the top.
1t is fortunate circumstance that all the
eggs do not hatch and come to maturitv.-
There is a river i'll Brazil of which the pa
tives say in dry weather that it is more fish
than water; but were the enormous fecup.
dity OF all species of the scaly gentlemen
to meet with no drawback, every lake
river and ocean would become crow ded t.
repletion, and tie sea would become putri,
with their decaying carcasses but to sup
ply the waste wrought by the necessities o
fa, =.
to us most encouraging picture for tn
future, when the resources of the lant
shall, by teeming myriads of human beings
I've strained to the utmost.
THE BLACK BASS.
The black bass, which belongs to til
p6rcidG, is a common fish, exceedingl
abundant in the Northern and Wester