The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-05-20
FISH CULTURE.


FlSH CULTURE.
The Introduction and Propoy0fiOn of Fish,
in Western Rirers.
Prof. Spencer F. Baird, commissions
of fisheries, has sent a communication t
the house of representatives asking an ar
preparation of $17 800 for the purpose @
continuing the introduction and propa
CATION of useful food fishes into the Unite,
States this coming season. In his com
munication, Professor Baird says:
The work of the United States fisl
commission in multiplying useful foot
fishes was commenced in 1872, and ha
been prosecuted with satisfactory results
up to the present time.
The species to which special attention
has been directed are the shad, the fresh
water herring, the striped bass or rock
fish, the California salmon, the salmon OF
Maine, the land-locked salmon, the white
fish and the carp; each of these having
| special relations to certain portions OF
the country, and promising in their an
ticipated aggregate an extremely import
ant addition to the food resources of the
United States.
The states which have so far been the
direct recipients of spawn and young fish
of more or less of these species are Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu-
sets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Della
ware. Maryland, the District of Column
bia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Car
DINA, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisi-
ana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Ten
nessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, Wisconsin Minnesota Iowa,
Utah, and California while other states,
such as Alabama and Arkansas, which
have not been the actual scenes of the
operations of the commission, have been
indirectly benefited by the introduction
of fish into their rivers at points outside
of their state limits The extension of
the work to other states and its amplifi-
cation in all is simply question of time
and expenditure.
The operations of the commission have,
it is believed, given entire satisfaction to
the people at large, as shown by the gen.
eral popularity of the measures adopted,
the great interest excited in the subject |
throughout the country, and the APP
pointment of state fish commissions in
nineteen states, in most instances for the |
purpose of directly cooperating with the
United States commission in its efforts |
to secure from the waters their fullest |
yield of animal food. This has rightly |
been considered an object of the greatest
in view of the rapidly in
population of the United States,
and the almost corresponding diminu-
ton in the average yield of vegetable
food by the farming lands, and it is not
thought to be exaggeration to say that
the waters can be made to yield a larger
per centage of nutriment, acre for acre,
than the land.
For the purpose of furnishing better
idea Of the nature and extent of the
operations of the United States fish COM
mission, beg to inclose herewith tables
showing the distribution of eggs and
spawn during the years 1874 and 1875,
making the following aggregate:
Shad ,6S9, $50
PenObscOt salmon. ................. ,294, 800
California sllmon 5, 153, $40
Total. .............26,l 5I 800
To this is to be added the Matching
md distribution, during the winter and
spring of 1856, of California salmon,
Penobscot salmon, land-locked salmon,
md lake whitefish, not yet completed,
md the details of which can not now be
given, but amounting to at least IA ,OO0,-
100 of fish, thus making total of 49,
100000 of fish supplied by the United
States fish commission in three years.
This, as the assumed ratio of one to two
hundred, would represent the proceeds
If S,OO0,0OO,OO0 of eggs laid in the nat
lral way and subject to all the especial
,erils of natural spawning.
GOLD and COTTON GOODS.