Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-12-02
Fish Culture In the United States.
CUE SIrRIEl-T nISCI-SSEn InToM


THE SUBJECT DISCUSSED BY THE POTOMAC
FRUIT GROWERS.
The regular monthly meeting of the Potomac
Fruit Growers association was held in the halls
OF the Spencerian Business college last eve
ming, the president, DIR. E.. p. Rowland in the
chair. with George C. Gwynn secretary.
Prof. Charles w. Smiley, of the United States
Fish commission, delivered an interesting ad-
dress on fish culture in the United States. stat
ing in opening that the relation of fish culture
to fruit growing might not appear at first
glance, yet the same purpose was in view, keep
The higher types OF life produce slowly, but
rear carefully. and intelligently. The lion will
rear its one offspring. The hen will hatch a
ut the very bottom of the scale of life will pro-
duce from 1000 to many million eggs and have
no instinct or mentality whatever to expend i'm
their preservation. The parent leaves them to
the mercy of their environments, and cruel, in
deed, they are. Nine out of ten. nnety-nine
out of a hundred, even nine hundred and nine
ty-nine out OF a thousand are destroyed The
eggs and the more rare Matched fishes form
dainty morsels for the hungry sharks, blue
waters. Fishes sometimes eat their own eggs
and young. A fifty-pOund Goldfish will produce
DC, OOO,O 600 TO $4,000 900 eggs yet it is scarcely
possible tor one Ofthem all to produce 5O-pound
Goldfish. Artificial nsh culture says, '.lf we can
secure those eggs we will protect them from
their natural enemies, and out of 10000, 900
eggs we will put 20, OOO, 900 Matched fishes into
the water Second, we will put them into the
1nOSi ldNOTdDle water, Wlere 1NeV may ElOW to
maturity, Third, if we can rear them until a
few weeks old they can protect themselves
with swift movements from their most dan.
gerOus enemies" Fifty or sixty years ago the
fish supply seemed ineXhaustibe, nOtwith-
standing all the natural adverse Influences: but
the ingenuity of fishermen to supply hungry
nation OF fifty million of people with fishes
once week has swept the lakes and rivers
almost clear of the most valuable varieties of
fish, SO that it hardly pays to seek for them In
1870 there were half a dozen fishing vessels in
the country. Five years later there were
1000. The nets in Lake Michigan could reach
round the lake II placed together. The fisher
men on our own Potomac will not allow the shad
TO come up the river, catching them in the bay
1t Is thrown in the faces of the fish commission
that we have not more than half as many shad
now in the Potomac as formerly. II there are
half as many, 1T Is due to the fish commission
-Four and "A half million of shad were caught
annually in the sacramento river, California
before artificial propagation tried there
Then ten million of young fishes were annually
placed in the river, and nine million were an.
nually caught: That is to say, artificial propa-
States fish commission having shown Califor-
mia how to propagate fish left her to carry out
the principle. The supply in the Sacramento
was speedily reduced to the old figures
Prof. John \. Ryder, microscopic of the Us
Fish commission, had prepared some fine ex-
OF fertilization to the period of Matching, which
were shown through the microscope to the
audience by DIR. T.. p. Rowland, presidsht of
the society; DIR. II. a. DObson and Mr. IS c.
Chapman. DIR. Duncan recited "Withering
| Leaves and 1.-The Old Village Choir" and DR.
Poorhouse," and 1.-The Shippers Story of the
Three Saints"
The society will hold it's next meeting at the
residence OF DIR. C. A. V. Hartleben in January.