Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-12-02
A GREAT INTEREST TO VIRGINIA.

A GREAT INTEREST TO VIRGINIA.
Last September, the SPECTATOR had an
article entitled, "Our Fish Interests-As-
ISOLATED Advantages" which was approx
ingly reproduced by some of our cotempo-
raries, who, from local position and better
opportunities of observation in respect to
the subject generally, can enter the discus
sion of questions which will be presented to
the next Legislature in relation to it with
more practical information than an interior
journal can command We then passed by
the coast interest involved, which, whilst of
chief concern to a large section Of the State
in it's direct importance, has at the same
time more than an ordinary bearing affect
ing the wishes of the people of the whole
Commonwealth accessible to rapid transpor-
tation from the east. The healthful food,
not to say luxurious living, afforded by our
shad- fisheries, can only be appreciated as it
deserves when once it has been enjoyed,
and of this feature of the question we will
speak before concluding.
In the article referred to, we had some
thing to say Of the purposes Of the Virginia
Fish Commissioner, in the efforts he would
make to re-stock our Valley and mountain
streams, during the coming Spring, and
mentioned the kinds Of fish he desired to
plant in our waters, and the necessity OF
proper legislation to enable him to carry
out his design. We also adverted to the
value, apart from the increased amount OF
the very best food we would thereby secure,
should we avail ourselves of such resources.
of increasing the attractions of the Virginia
Valley and contiguous mountain country af-
ording summer homes with innumerable en-
joyments for travellers and persons seeking
rest and recreation. To this particular
feature, instances of actual benefit with al
most fabulous results which other sections
of our country had realized, were present.
ed. In sketching the country now in the
full possession of these large benefits and
attractions, secured first and mainly through
a fostering care of their fishing grounds,
we demonstrated the superiority of our own
in climate, larger boundaries favored by
numberless streams so finely adapted to
such purposes, and other advantages which
may now be passed by.
We had protective laws, but during the
hiatus which has interviewed, wherein all
the minor, if indeed, not the greater, inter-
ests of our domestic economy, have been
thrown aside by our chief rulers, these laws
have been allowed to pass from the statute
book, both by Limitation and neglect Resto
ration is necessary, and to this good work the
Legislature and the Governor will be in
voked to take up the cause of the people
aud start the State again in a proper direc
ton.
Virginia has now but one fish-hatchery,
most admirably located in all respects near
Wytheville. The Commissioner is Colonel
Marshall Mcdonald, who has taken care of
our interests to the very best advantage of
which the limited means at his command
of late years would admit. His annual re-
port will be submitted at the next meeting
of the Legislature. He will recommend
certain Legislation, and suggest ways and
means for the management in the future of
the great interest which he has watched
over with sleepless anxiety, and with an
earnest desire of accomplishing all for
which the natural resources Of the State
so invitingly encouraged him to hope. For
some years he has been associated with
Prof. Baird, of the United States Fish
Commission, and is rendering valuable
service to the country in that department
Of the Government.
Recurring to the truly valuable interest
all the people of the State have in the prop
agation of shad, with the view of securing
a larger benefit from that fish for food, we
draw some information from a paper read
by Colonel Mcdonald before the Biological
Society of Washington City-his main sub
ject being the culture Of shad. We cannot
undertake to follow the Colonel through
his interesting and instructive address. He
gave statistics of the shad- fisheries of the
Atlantic streams of which the Chesapeake
and its tributaries were the largest of all in
1850, but had since decreased, whilst the
Hudson and Delaware had largely increased.
In speaking of propagation, he said
SIT was physiological necessity that
shad should enter fresh water to spawn
Shad eggs might be impregnated in salt
water, but would not develop up to the
point of Matching. The shad must reach
fresh water in numbers sufficient to supply
by propagation the annual loss. Originally
shad had free access to the water of the
country. Then man began to reduce the
spawning area; dams were extended down
the river; so the productive capacity of the
river by means of natural propagation was
not one-half as great as it had been. Then
factories have been erected on the rivers,
the spawning beds have been destroyed by
sediment or deleterious matter, and the wa
ter rendered unsuitable for propagation.
Last of all, man had come with improved
appliances, and pushed his fisheries out of
fresh water into the salt water. So now
sixty-three per cent. of the shad caught are
caught in salt water. Counting, then, the
catch in the rivers, after the shad reached
fresh water, it was doubtful whether one
per cent.-certainly not five per cent.-sur
vived to reproduce the species. Upon that
small percentage they depended to keep up
the supply of shad in the rivers. Under
such conditions the spawning area, being
limited, and the shad excluded from fresh
water, without artificial propagation, they
would not only not be able to keep up the
supply, but the shad would soon be exter-
minated, or there would be such reduc-
ton as to render the fisheries improbable.
They were fast approaching such a crisis in
1879, when the Fish Commission began the
work Of shad-propagation. The work of
artificial propagation had not only held the
balance even, but resulted in a positive in
crease"
Further on the Colonel deprecated the
methods employed in Establishing es-
pecially with pound nets. In the Potomac,
the catch now is driven below points where
they can spawn. In the Rappahannock,
the nrinniraal t<al,