The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-12-11
FISH CULTURE.
The Government Fish Commission and
What They Have Done.

the country's ablest scientists devoted
their best time and thought to a subject
about which the great mass of newspa-
per readers have known, until quite re-
Gently, but little and cared, perhaps,
still less. The investigation in question
was made with view to ascertaining
whether any and what diminution in
the number of food fishes of the coasts
and lakes of the United States has taken
place, and, if so, to what causes the
same is due and, also. whether any,
and what protective, prohibitory or pre-
cautionary measures should be adopted
in the premises" 1t evidently requires
complete geological, botanical and
physical survey of all the waters en-
braced within the scope of their re-
search, but the savans by whom the vast
work was undertaken have already
shown themselves fully equal to its &C
complishmenb.
At the head of the United States fish
commissioner termed in the act of
congress authorizing its appointment
is Prof. s. F. Baird, of the Smithsonian
Institute, with n. E. Rockwell, of New
York city, as secretary ..;fProf. A. E.
Verrill and Prof. D. E. Eaton. of Yale,
with two or hree assistants Prof. s. L
Smith and four or five students from
the Scientific school of New Haven :;
Profs. Rice and G. B. Goode, of Wes-
leyan University Profs. Hyatt, Salon
stall and Rathbone, of the Boston So
ciety of Natural History ; Prof. D. W.
B. Farlow, of Cambridge; Drs. Joseph
Leidy and Henry Chapmany, of the
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and
Mr.. Henry Blake, of Cambridge, artist.
The place selected for their headquar-
tiers the present year was the fishing
village of Noank, in Connecticut. Sit
mated at the end of Long Island sound,
and looking out on the Atlantic ocean,
midway between New London and
StonipgtOn, with a population princi-
pally engaged in fishing, it was we'll
suited to the purposes of the commits
sion.
While investigating the questions
concerning the food fishes of the At
lantic, great attention has been paid to
the food fishes of the lakes and rivers.
Under the direction of Prof. Baird, Mr..
Livingston Stone has been employed
on the Macleod river, a branch of the
Sacramento, obtaining salmon eggs, of
which he secured some six millions.
The salmon of the Macleod are a very
vigorous fish, growing rapidly, and
larger than our eastern salmon, weigh
ing twenty and thirty, and occasionally
fifty pounds. This species is especially
adapted to the warmer waters of the
country, and the eggs thus obtained lad
been distributed in the headWaters of
the Susquehanna, Potomac, James. Del
aware, and even the Mississippi. They
come forward much earlier than those
from the colder waters of New England
and Canada, the ova being obtained in
August and September, and tho young
fishes, fully Matched, intrusted to their
future homes in November and Decem-
Der.
OF the 100000 eggs obtained by
Mr.. Stone, 1000, 900 were restored to
their native river, that that source of
supply might not be dried up the
other 5000, 600 were distributed in the
middle and western states; $50, 900
were sent to Michigan, and $50 900 to
Utah. Half a million were placed in
the Matching house of Mr.. Alexander
Kent, of Baltimore. to be distributed
over Maryland and Virginia, and another
large amount to q similar institution at
Bloomsbury, n. J. Besides these sal
mon gathered from Oregon and scat
tered in the warmer waters of the coun-
try, Mr.. Charles G. Adkins, of Bucks
port, Me-. on the Penobscot, has OBJ
tanned 800, 900 eggs from that river.
| These fishes, adapted to the streams of
New England and northern New York,
are slower in coming to maturity than
the western fish. They are secured in
October and Novenbe and placed in
the water in the following February and
March. From Maine and Oregon,
therefore, 10000 salmon eggs have
been this year gathered and distributed
in all the rivers of the land that run to
the ocean.
But in addition to this, Prof. Baird
has succeeded in obtaining eggs Of the
land-locked salmon of Lake Sober, in
Maine. This species of salmon, though
now fresh water, is supposed to have
run up thither from the ocean, but never
to have returned. They are a small
fish, weighing from three to eight
pounds, but very fine eating; 10000
of these eggs have been secured and
distributed among the rivers of New
England and Michigan that run into
lakes.
The principal sources Of supply of
shad ova are at Castleton, N. Y, on the
Hudson, and Holyoke, Mass, on the
Connecticut and, at these two places.
some 5000, 900 or 5000, 900 eggs have
been secured. Salmon eggs are sent
across the continent imbedded in moss
but shad are so lively, being Matched in
five or six days after they are impreg-
mated, that they can only be distributed
as living fishes. Large cans are, there
"a
water each, and in each can are deposi-
| ted 5000 or 10000 of the little fishes.
These 5000, 600 or 5000, 900 shad have
been distributed over New England.
New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and
as far west as Iowa. The southern
states have also received their quota,
$4,000 having been for the first time
deposited in two streams in Texas go
that three years from this time Cit re-
quirt three years TO bring the shad to
full maturity the shad will be our ma
tional fish, and will be caught in every
stream in the union. Some of these
shad eggs have been deposited in the
tributaries of the Mississippi and of the
great lakes. But the latter is an exper-
ment, the shad hitherto having always
found his way to salt water. But small
shellfish, of the same species as the
shad feeds upon in the bottom of the
ocean, having been found III the depths
of great lakes, it has been determined
to try the experiment of both shad and
salmon for lakes.
But it is no experiment to stock riv-
ers running to the sea with food fishes.
In 1867 the ova of shad were first car
ried to the former Matching places in
the head waters of the Connecticut.
During the three years required for
their growth, Connecticut was so empty
of fish that the fisheries of the lower
part of the river were wholly aban-
dOned. But in 1870 large schools be-
gan to pass up the river, and they have
continued to grow in numbers and in
weight till this year, when in the
height of the season shad were sold
on the spot where they were caught at
50 per 100. Streams in southern Mas
sachusetts have been restocked with
alewives, so that 100 tons of fsh-food
are now taken from streams that six
years ago were without a fish and the
supply of this fish in the streams has
restocked the mouths of the rivers and
the shores with larger and more nutri-
tious fish, attracted thither by the plen-
teousness of their favorite bait.