Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-11-19

reason the carp haze p0nds cf their ocn 4
that they haze habit IF eating mp any otheI
fish they come IN c1nt0ct acHh." Everywhere
this characteristic comes up about salmon
bass and trout. Prot. Baird says the bias.
has eaten up all the minnoes and clubs o
the upper Potomac. Norris, in his book
upon Pisciculture, speaking of bass, says
;. ''they are preG3GciouS rascats and ought not t
be put in tie streams Nth y0Wng salmoH fry.
Seth Green says about the same thing. II
a letter to us Of recent date he advised US
against all fancy fish. salmon, bass anG
trout, &c, until we re stock our waters Il
the full with shad and herring. This We
hold to be good advice and hope that the
State will profit by it. With all thi.
knowledge thrust before him Commission
er FERGUSON still goes on in his own way
! apparently careless about the true Interest
of the --forgetful, we fear, that he is
only a servant-a creature of the law-not
first but second in this matter. 'Tis, how.
ever, true that weak Legislature and 3
juvenile Governor, allowed a law to be
passed, giving the commissioners the right
to put any fish in our waters that they
"sh0U deem desirable to introduce into tie
eaters ofthe State" &c, &c, and ''1eith sucl
food fishes as IN their .juGgaent stall be most
advantageous" &c, &c. 1t is apparent
from the above extracts from the law that
the raising of shad and herrings and the
restocking of our waters with the same
did not once enter the heads of the trainers
of the law. This is apparent from the fact
/ that such fish, shad nor herring, nor any
native fish Aentioned in the Ac-; but
everything seems intended for fancy FISH.
! The Act gives the commissioner leave Ito
obtain necessary ova and construct and
erect necessary houses and devices for
/ Matching the same and protecting the
/ young fish until fit to be distributed &c,
/ &c. 1t is clearly to be seen from the a
bove extract that our staple fishes was
ignored from the beginning, it was so in
tended, ii has been so worked by the com
missioner, for whose benefit alone the law
was enacted, and not the fishermcn's nor
fishing property holders.
Mr.. Seth Green writes Us that one mil
! lion of young shad can be raised for less
money than one thousand salmon: that
salmon compared with shad suffers hy
the comparison. We have no doubt OF
this, for we have often eaten it and find
il so.
The difference in propagation, the cost
as above INDICATED. should give shad the
first place ms food fish, the perfect GER
tainty of success in tindinga fish that will
restore our fisheries to their pristine posi-
ton points Enthusiastically to shad. The
proofs are abundant everywhere. In an
address OF the Hon. Robert b. Roosevelt.
Fish Commissioner Of New York, we find
the following. offers every induce
ment TO his cultivation, he is found every
where along our coast, is unanimously
prolific, Is easily handled, cheap nipple
ments only are needed. the eggs hatch in
few days: they are laid in the pleasant
summer time: no special care Is demand
ed the conditions of success is simple: he
requires little supervision; when hatchcd
he does not have To be fed: he takes his
own way unsidel 10 the sea; there he
grows and fattens; he comes back of him
self to the river where he was bred: he
lets himself be taken in all kinds az nets :
and finally, when he presents himself in
his full blown glory Of some half dozen
pounds upon our tables. he is dish fit
for the gods. More than that. far more
important 10 Us wretched meytals. ft for
the poor: he can be sold Tor three cents
per pound, and is the cheapest food in the
world for the people. Already has the
price of shad been largely reduced by the
efforts Of fish culture. For four wears past
the New York commissioners have yearly
deposited from 5000, 600 - 10000. 600 Of
shad fry IN the Hudson. while the Com
nccticut commissioners in one wear raised
the enormous number Of % 600 GEO Fish
cries which were once exhausted have re.
yiyed; the number taken at q single haul
'ot net has been largely increased. whilst
the price has been reduced So that the
shad were sold nj wholesale last wear ttSf3}
At the fisheries on the Hudson Tor s. q
hundred; whereas two wears before con-
tracts had been made ut Sis
THE yield from the Connecticut river in
1870 and 1871 was greater than it has been
since ls02. As many as 5000 shad were
taken at one haul, the largest haul prcvi-
ously on record being $500 in lSfI. In
the meanwhile the southern rivers, which
were extremely prolific Jaw years ago,
are descending from bad to worse
The above extract ought to satisfy eve
~ doubtful mind the immense interest Of
the State in shad and herriugs ought TO
demand the cheerful influence oF every
sane mind in the State.
In 1874 our commissioners put into the
waters OF this State aud Virginia. report
says, 100000 California salmon: during
last Spring reports credits them it'll hay
ing attempted something upon the Eastern
Shore, in the culture Of shad. which we
hope is so. We are glad To inform the
grange that Prot. Baird, United States
commissioner, tho past Spring established
two fish-hatching stations upon the Poto-
mac and turned out about 5000. 600 shad
fry. but for this So far as we know I'VE
took pains to inform ourselves the Poto-
mac would have been again neglected. II
is worthy of note that MARYLAND is the on
" State OF the fourteen States in the Union
that pays anything TO its fish commits
sionsrs.
BY the wire working Of certain distin-
guished gentlemen of Baltimore, the State
was tricked into giving its commissioners
$4,000 to expend $500 in fish culture fo-
two years. This is unprecedented in any
line of business that we know of in the
annals of mankind.
We would suggest that the shad and
herring interest be grange interest for
the whole State, and that our State grange
he requested to appoint committee upon
ring and other native fish and also
committee upon oyster culture, the two to
be entirely separate and distinct the one
from the other. These committees to act
in concert with like committees of the
subordinate oranges as the necessity of
the case requires We earnestly recon-
mended that the State and subordinate
oranges represent this interest in our next
Il l.. 4 II
making it the special duty Of the COM
missioners to attend only to the increase
and propagation of shad and behring's, for
at least two years. Increase the shad and
herring, which are in fact the food fish for
all kinds of predictions fish, and ne i'm
mediately increase our pan-tish, rock,
perch, catfish. sc.
The decrease of fish is constant source
of ynn1ar 10 neonln fThayr Il Ct