Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-01-22
bort Tobateo Gimes
PORT TOBAC eco:
Friday Morning, January, %, ."....lS75.
From the American Farmer.
The Shad Fisheries and the Mary land
Comm isSiOncrs.

4Hessrs. Editors Of the 4merican Farmer:
We continue to-day our "laJor Of lore, by
sending you a list of the fisheries upon the
Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River
and an extract from the gentleman s letter
who is much interested ia the mattsr, and who
kindly worked up the number aid value OF
those fisheries at our request. This exhibi
fully confirms our assertion in tle November
No of the Farmer-that the fisheriA of the up
per counties were fully as valuable as thoH upon
The Potomac = 1t is nofnecesssry, We <Spe, te
remind you that the object of this and the for
mer communication is to call the attention o
our people TO the wealth We have, real ant
prospective" in this industry, and TO contrast
it with the imaginary wealth IN fancy fish
We have but little TO add in this line to-day
because we hope by this time the fishermen
have their eyes op n TO their own interest ant
are ready 10 stand in defence OF it, preferrlng
as wise men "a bird an hdndto tUo IN the bush.
We regret exceedingly that you should have
so harsh, and We believe unfair, an edItoria
upon Mr.. Seth Green you bad IN the Novem'
Der No. of the Flrm,r You have, doubtless,
done Mr.. Green injustice in saying That M
asked more royalty for his box than the entr'
sum at the disposal of the Commissioners toI
one year This is so unlike Mr.. Green tha
we feel that YOU have done him injustice, anc
ought, therefore, TO make the amsnde hoRorJbtr
Mr. Green 5 generosity elsewhere IS worthy o
all praise and cannot be paral.eled We hno"
that ne does not charge the States OF Cohnecu'
cut or Massachusetts, anything, and other
States have his patent NJ mere nominal price
Prof :. +. Baird, L. :. Commissioner q Fish
cries. used Grccns patent from tlonda tt
Maine, upon all the principal rivers, without
charge. We have been III communication "ltf
Mr.. Green for many years and have Away:
found him a truly public-sP'ritcd mat-c'e'
giving encouragement {" al To go into tie busi
ness of fish culture There a. soH'slhtag acroHs
IN Denmark " which Mr.. Green knew Ct. II h'
asked such price as YOU assert. Suppose
for instance, tha, il is true that MT. Greer
tlufed our Commissioners of by his exDruon
ought that to have paralyzcd them? BY nj
means they ought to know that there Ge mor'
ways Of killing dog than by hanging him.
Mr. Green himself proves 10 YOU IN certain OF nj:
reports that his boxes are not an AhsoaIIc ne
ccssi;y he saws that he haiChed shad eggs IL
n tum5isr in Gen. Spinner Office, and in
,IR box in the basement OF the Treasury II
Washington. IT Department Of Agrtr.ifurI
Report, ls6s. pagS 33I-J j Green, you see. *
nores himself! What then would an ug, nj
Gus man have done under like circumstances
We would have gene tor that .'.anbl,r an,
. =
. have looked up Il few old ho- troughs and pu
wire bottoms 10 them-woud have looked ~
a few hundred corn meal siitcrs and imprpyiseo
them into spawn boxes or better still, w
would have gone down upon some Of the prln
/ cipal rivers, and hunted up the spSw aing ted;
of shad-haye fenced them in or 80 much q
them as would suit our purpose, Ni.h hne wiz
netting 10 keep oul carnlvcrous fishes hav
gone TO work and snapped our imPudeni tia
gers in Mr. Green face. Our Commissioners
like a certain old fogy. cared Tor none Of the>
things but felt, &c fear, \ rejoicing that hal
their work WAS done. T,s true sc have n
legal right TO interfere in this matter, for tn
law is So framed as to put all our interest il
the hands Of men who have no interest in com
mon with US therefore they cannot feel In
absolute necessity Of gisin. attention 10 an in
tcrest by W hieh they are TO he bcaetitted onl.
equally with the public al large as 4
their salaries.
We object to fancy fish of all kinds, becaus
their utility is simply prob!cmatical-shad an'
herring a certainty. We object 20 any kind o
salmon because after We cultivate them W
shall have 10 cultivate taste for them. Sac
ramento salmon. :. ga'aHdi, and Atlantic sal
mon S S1!ar, Rrc both about the same aSh II
taste. II do not believe taat any enc can aihrn
positively that one is better than the other. -
Lirtng,tor> Ston>, Eighth inHasI Krpori Q
Conmissioaer Of IaI4nd fisheri.s, " ssIctnsrtts
for 1874, page II. Mr. Stone has stated tn
truth, and VT have no hesitation in acreptin,
what he SAYS, then neither have we any hrSta
,ion in asserting that neither variety OF salmOI
is comparable TO our delicious shai. With shal
and herring We can feed the million with such
FISH rs they are used TO, and can enrich III,
State beyond peradvcature. Give us "h
greatest good 10 the greatest HEnab'r," and ",
are satisfied and that will only be by furnish
ing to the public at large-irom Maryland
tsround the world, at the least possible cost
the largest amount of nutritious food. w
cannot do this with salmon, for many reasons
lst Because our waters are not its natural ha
biiat I'd. Expense in Matching them. (Th'
expense stands about as ! TO loo in favor o
shad-or TO put the assertion in shape 80 as L
be intelligible to all, we will say that the COS
of raising | q, 600 salmon would turn out | 600,
600 shad Sd. After we have cultivated sal
mon, our people would then have 10 cultivate
q taste for them.
We did not expect, Mr.. Editor, when we sa
down TO write tU have written the halt We have
but still We cannot consent to close this pape
without paving some attention TO Mr. Alexan
der Kent article in the December number O
the Farmer, for the reason that we fear tha
Mr.. Kent might think that Lower Marylant
was naughty Mr.. Kent says: The sal
mon fisheries OF the Columbia river were wort
last year 81. 600, OU0." We have looked owe
all the Reports OF the Commissioners of Fish
cries that we have on hand since 1870 to tn
present day, and can find no figures that woul
justify the gentleman in making such state
ment. We hope Mr.. Kent will allow us to as
him for official documentary evidence of tha
fact PoToMAc
Charles County, .W., Dec, 1874