Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-11
PrOpagating SmeIts.
Visit to the Hackensack River-Num- ber Of Eggs i'm a SmeIt.
 From the New York Timcs

| tFrom the New York Timcsl
 On Monday party of gentlemen interested | in fish culture-among them were F, Mather
 and Mir. H. D. McGovern, of Brooklyn-went | to the Hackensack river, Cherry Hill station | N. J., to witness the operations used in prop agating the smelt. MT. George Ricardo, one | of the fish wardens of the river, appreciating
 the excellence of the Hackensack smelt, and
 it's superiority in flavor and delicacy over those caught in other waters, conceived, some ! four years ago, the idea of propagating the
 smelt. In 1876 the catch of fish in the river l was small, for in the neighborhood of Cherry 1 Hill station few pounds represented the
 whole yield. Having arranged apparatus of
 the simplest character adapted to fertilzing l the eggs of the smelt, MT. Ricardo has
 succeeded, in time, in quite restocking the
 river. In fact, where few fish were caught l some years ago, now very good catches are
 made. The stocking of the river with smelts | rests upon the same general law which gov
 erns all fish culture. When the smelt is gravid, she ascends the stream where she was born to deposit her eggs, which are to be l fructifed by the male fish. The fish being caught in a fyke-net, some 25 pounds of fish, | or 75O fsh-for the Hackensack smelts, like l the Raritan or Passaio fish, are quite small are put In box which has holes per
 forated in it. which receptacle has D
 quantity of pine brush thrown into it.
 The box is hauled into the stream, where it
 floats, the fish keeping alive and the fish de-
 posit their eggs there. The eggs of the smelt
 being glutinous adhere to the branches. Af-
 ter certain time, 24 to 36 hours, these
 branches with their clusters of eggs are put
 back into the stream, when they sink, and
 when the fish are matched they take care of themselves. The fish after they have spawn
 ed in the box are marketed. AS the Omerus
 mordax is very tender fish, it could not
 stand the ordinary stripping practice as is
 employed for trout. net was brought to the surface during the visit, and some 40 lbs
 of this delicate fish were brought on shore.
 On landing the fish, that marked cucumber smell which is a peculiarity of the smelt was quite noticeable. The fish were all ripe. and the meshes of the fyke net were covered with spawn. The number of eggs in ripe
 fish, according to Mir Ferguson, the Maryland Fish Commissioner, is some 50, 900. Accur- ate measurements of the eggs were made on the spot by Mir. Mather, who found that the unimpregnated egg was one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter, while the impregnated was one-twenty- fifth of an inch. series of very careful researches on the embryologv of the egg of the smelt are due to Prof. Rice, of the Hopkins University. This season the spawn ing of the smelt in the Hackensack has com menced some 15 days earlier than in 1879. At this same point last year, the New Jersey Fish Commissioners, Mir. A. A. Anderson, was engaged in stocking the river. This case of work in fish culture on this river is exception al, but excellent of it's kind, and it shows how, at very small expense and without any loss of fish, stock Of fish in river can be = kept up. In the same way, MT. Ricardo has been propagating shad in the Hackensack with equally good results. MT. McGovern, representing E. G. Blackford, the New York State Fish Commissioner, was studying the process, with the idea of stocking the numer- ous streams on Long Island with this very good fish. It may be mentioned that smelt, though an anadromous fish, can become land locked, the New Hampshire Commissioner having successfully stocked some of their fresh water lakes with the smelt.