The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-02-03
LOCAL MATTERS.
FISH CULTURE.
INTERESTING REPORT ON THE SUBJECT

The Committee on the Chesapeake and
its Tributaries will to-day present On inter-
esting report TO the House of Delegates on
the important subject of fish culture, or the
artificial breeding of fish. The report states
that the annual upward migration of fish
has been entirely stopped in many of our
most important rivers by the building of
dams, which entirely obstruct their passage,
and the accumulation of mud above the
dams is rapidly destroying such fish as are
not migratory in their habits. The neGes-
sary consequence is that the day is not far
distant when we may certainly look forward
to an almost total depletion of this cheap
and formerly abundant source of subsist-
ence in the fresh water streams of the
State--a calamity all the more deplorable
from the fact that ii will be chiefly felt by
the poorer classes. TO cite a notable in
stance within the memory of men now liv-
ing, James river from its mouth to the con-
f1uence of the Jackson and Cowpasture
yielded each returning spring to the people
living near its banks an abundant supply of
fresh shad of the most delicious variety
and yet to-day, by reason of the dams of the
James River and Kanawha Canal, not sim
gle one of these fish is caught above tide
water in that stream.
The committee are deeply impressed with
the Importance, nay, the. urgent necessity,
of adopting some adequate measure for
remedying this widespread and severely
felt evil. They would suggest the double
remedy Of providing for the upward pas
the bass, and the eel, by fsh-ways over the
dams, and the replenishing of all the fresh
water streams Of the State by the artificial
propagation of fish, and by depositing In
them varieties Of fresh-Water fish obtained
from other and more favored streams.
From the light thrown upon this subject
by the many reports published by expert
enced and well-informed gentlemen in Eu-
rope, and in the States north of us, who
huve made this subject their study, the
committee feel convinced that our many
mountain streams, rivers, and bays, can be
filled at very small expense with the
choicest varieties of fish, thereby greatly
reducing the cost of living, and adhering
to the comforts of all classes of our people.
Mr.. Seth Green, one of the fish commits
sioners appointed under the laws of New
York, and perhaps better informed on this
subject than any man in this country, says ::
" Expend one-lhousandth the part of the
sum spent in tilling the land in tilling the
waters, and fish may be sold in our markets
at two cents per pound.'' And again he
says: 81 do not hesitate to say, that at the
present time an acre Of water can be made
to pay far more than an acre of land"
The evidence furnished by the reports of
the commissioners in the various States
that have taken the subject in hand, all
concur in the statement that the streams
heretofore without good fish have been re-
plenished, under this system, with the best
varieties and in great abundance,
Whilst in England, France, and other
countries Of Europe, as well as in our own
northern States, the subject of fish culture
and the replenishing of depleted streams,
has received the attention commensurate
with it's Importance, the people of Vir-
ginia, with but few exceptions, have slept
on in most unblissful ignorance Of the fact
that their tresh-water streams have been
gradually losing ltheir tinny.. inhabitants,
and of the no less important fact that there
is cheap and easy mode of counteracting
the evil. Many of the States appreciating
the Importance of the subject, have ap-
pointed commissions Of fisheries, and are
constructing fish ways over impossible
dams.
The New England States, by concerted
legislation, have joint commission, which,
it is said, gives hope Of speedy restoration
of shad and salmon to their streams, from
which they have been expelled.
Your committee, therefore, would re-
spectfullY recommend that small sum be
appropriated and placed in the hands of the
Governor of the Commonwealth, who shall
be authorized to appoint two suitable COM
missioners to carry out, under his lnstruc-
tions, this important measure.
il YrYvr, SvN n