The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-01-01
So ENDS A swlNpLE
THE SUPPLY OF FHSEH FOR
FOOD.

There is scarcely any part of
our wide empire where u pleasant
and profitable occupation may not
be found by turning TO use the
running streams, the bays of the
lakes, and the ponds which nature
has so lavishly provided for US.
A few old boxes will furnish and
q week or two's labor will arrange
the means, and q very trifiing out
lay will purchase the necessary
material. Care and attention are
the chief necessaries; capital is
scarcely any advantage in this
business. We speak of fish cul-
ture, as a rapidly developing in
dustry which is capable of turning
rivers into more prosperous sourc-
es of wealth than are the fields
which give US their annual pro-
ducts of grain and vegetables.
Few persons have any idea of
the extent to which fish may be
raised from spawn. In the ocean
the enemies of the small fish are,
fortunately, numerous; for if the
hundreds of thousands of eggs in
the roe of each herring and cod
came to maturity, the seas would
in time bee ONE impossible. But
this fecundity is ali in favor of
the fish cultivator. In a box of a
few inches capacity he can con-
vey his thousands of salmon,
trout, or shad to his own home,
and let them hatch in q simple and
easily constructed apparatus, turn
ing them out to furnish both sport
and food.
Professor Baird, in his report on
this interesting and important sub
ject just issued, shows the import
ance of distinguishing between
the aDadromous or up-running
fish, who spend part of their life
in the ocean and part in the rivers,
and the exclusively fresh water
fish, such as the brook trout, the
lake trout, the land-locked salmon,
the white fish, black bass, and the
like. In regard to the latter he
shows that their culture must al
ways be limited by the narrower
extent of their feeding grounds e;
so that if q river which has been
deprived of these fish be supplied
with them, they will, after time,
destroy the natural sources of
food and begin to prey upon one
another, thus keeping up the bal
ance of life which is always found
in waters untouched by men.
Thus the supply of fish to given
river or lake will always he limited
by the relation of subsistence to
numbers in their own waters.
Accordingly the effort to introduce
brook trout or black bass into
certain streams can never succeed
beyond a given point. WheI
the different forms of life are bal.
anced in that particular stream,
there will be no surplus reproduc
ton.
| Whatever interferes with the
spawning of = fish destroys mil
lions of offspring. Accordingly
the only thing necessary in Oul
rivers, TO preserve the enormous
harvest of fish which the oceaI
! offers to US, is not to interrupt tn,
: course of the fish, towards thei
} spawning grounds, and not t.
J break up the breeding places
With this object in view, the dit
| ferent states are removing the oh
stacles in the rivers which prevent
cd the progress of the up-runnin,
fish, and are restocking river
which were stripped of such fish
One of the most remarkable eXpeT
iments is that made in restocking
, the Connecticut river with shad
f In the spring of 1861, 100000
, eggs were artificially fertilized i
that river, and in 1872 the immens
|, number of 100000. The han
vest of shad in the Connection
! has increased enormously, an
/ many fishing stations which ha
q been abandoned have been re-es
q tablished. A single haul is meE
) toned of $3.50 shad, which is tn
greatest that has ever been know
a and last year these delicious fls
. were more numerous and cheape
: than they have ever been know
!. before along that river.
4 In New York, in 1870, abOT
o $500, 600 young shad were intro
: duced into the Hudson, and thi
n number has been increased ever
) year since. The effects of eve
: this moderate supply began to /
: manifest during the last sprinl
Great efforts are also made to il
troduce the shad into the Missi
h sippi and into she northern lake
o. Good judges confidently belieV
e that we shall soon have q supp
"a of shad both in the Mlssissip
= valley and in the rivers runnin
q into the great lakes which feed Il
m st. LaWrence.-Scientflc America
A..
~ There is this difference in t
a. biography OF James Watt and t
h legend OF the pillar OF salt. o.