The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-02-04
No tinnal Fish Culture.

! UdS pQuSG W liiSu9blS VI lAo''S 80" 80 u
so conditioned as to DC able to cultivate the
pursuits of leisure and refinement.
The progress In fish culture made IN this
country has been almost entirely confined to
the northern States, where there is money
to be spared TO the enterprise, and where
the streams were not so well supplied with
fish as were our southern waters. But We,
too, very much need thot. Our stock Of fish
should he increased. Some Of the southern
States have made somo movement In the
matter; and Virginia, year before last, ap-
pointed fish commissioners with such small
pay that they had DO means to do anything.
One of them DIR. WALL) soon resigned, and
the other Or. BALI died before he had time
to gee any of the results OF the little he was
enabled to do through the nearly gratutols
assistance rendered him by liberal citizens,
and by the railroads IN transporting small
lots of black bass, which he distributed most
spariugly between the Rappahannock, the
James and its head-waters, and the Dan. We
have no doubt that they will lie heard from
in some Of those streams next year.
Virginia dropped the matter after the first
year. But in the absence Of effort on her
part we may feel gratfied at the efforts that
are being made hy the Federal Government.
We have the report Of Mr.. SPENCER + BAIRD,
United States commissioner Of fish and
fisheries, of his first years administration.
The Government appropriated $4,000 to
the subject, and with this small sum the
commissioner operated. This appropriation,
however, was made in Jtnc--too late to do
much with shad. Tie services of SETH
GREEN, Of New York, and WILLIAM CLEFT, of
Connecticut, were secured, and they pushed
the enterprise as much as possible. GREEN
placed about u hundred thousand young
shad in the Allegheny river at Salamanca 1--WE
do not know where it is, except that it is on
the Allegheny river) and in the upper Mis-
sissippi at St. Paul. Mr.. CLEFT got larger
supply of young shad from the Connecticut,
and divided most Of them between the ALE
ghany and the White river at indianapolis.
He reserved part for the Rocky Mountains.
These he transported to the Platte river; az
irving nc Denver with several thousand.
which he deposited in that river. GREEN
carried young fish from the Hudson to the
Sacramento, in California.
1t will be curious to see whether these
fish will multiply in the waters Of the plains
und the Pacific shed, which are new to them.
Mr.. BAIRD thinks that s,iaA and salmon will
| live in salt Lake-tlmt body Of water abound
ing in small crusacea, on which they feed.
He proposes 10 make the effort.
He thinks the Mississippi may DO stocked
with shad, since the Alabama river has been
stocked by the efforts Of Dr.. DANIEL, who
carried impregnated eggs across from the
Savannah to the head-WaterS of tho Alabama.
Mr.. BAIRD thinks there is nothing 10 in
terfere with the anticipation that with the
proper efforts shad may swarm in the waters
OF the Mississippi Valley ana in all the tri-
butarics of the Cult in the course of five or
six years in numbers corresponding to those
| in the James, the Potomac, and Delaware
rivers.
| The rapidity with which rivers may be
stocked with fish, especially shad, is illus
tratcd BY the statement that the Connecticut
commissioner has been turning out young
shad In annually-increasiug numbcrs-in
lS7lto 50,000,000, and In 1872 to $4,000 900 !;
and the spring catch in the Connecticut
river has become SO abundant that shad is,
in season, q drug in the market, selling al
from five to ten cents apiece. This lis q great
blessing to the poor. ...,... ...-...
| Mr.. BAIRD proposes to begin this season
with shad in the st. Johns river, advancing
northwardly along the Atlantic States as the
season advances, by impregnating the spawn
and Matching out the young fish, until the
close of the work in the Connecticut river.
The young fish he proposes to distribute
amongst the western rivers, and il Congress
gives authority be proposes to try the lakes
with shad, although the question of their
| surviving In those waters is unsettled. lie
thinks from the abundance of the crustacea,
on which shad live, in those waters, that
they will not only survive in them, but Gou-
rish.
With regard to salmon, tue commissioner
states that the northern streams formerly
Astounding In them are now nearly barren Of
them. His efforts to obtain young fish or
eggs were but very partially successful. He
found Mr.. CHARLES u. ATKINS, commits.
sioner of Maine, engaged in securing sal
mon eggs. He buys the living fish, and i'm
prisons them. until the proper season, when
he takes their spawn. by arrangement, the
United ,Stntes has half of the million and a
half Of the salmon eggs now in Mr. ATKINS
possession. Mr.. BAIRD, believing the salmon
Of Germany are the same with the salmon
of the eastern States, through the courtesy
of the German Government and his own
purchases secured u quarter of million Of
eggs there, and these have just arrived. The
reader may imagine The care necessary in
packing the eggs when their weight packed is
1900 pounds. The eggs weigh but little.
Dir. BAIRD also made arrangements to get
salmon eggs from the upper Sacramento,
supposins that The fish Of that river would
thrive in rivers south Of New England Say.
the Susquehaliua. The success was limited,
only $4,000 being secured. These are at
Bloomsbury, n. J.,and will at the proper
time be placed In the susquehanna. 4
The salmon of the Sacramento breed where
the summer Temperature reaches 100 to 40
Fahrenheit. Therefore, while the eastern
SALMON viii hardly thrive south of the Con-