The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-11-13
CHINOOK SALMON

Promise of Success.
The United States fish commissioner
planted $500 California or Chinook sal
mon in the head waters of the Battenkill
Saturday afternoon. About half the lot
were put in Green river, OF the rest,
lalf were put in Benedict brook and the
others were about equally divided be-
tween Matteson brook and Deming
brook. The fish put in these waters are
nine months old and from four to seven
inches long.
The work done Saturday is largely eX-
perimental, and its result will be watched
with great interest by the fish commits
sion. 1t is the beginning of another at
tempt to carry out pet project of Fish
Commissioner Macdonald to stock the
Hudson River with California salmon.
Col Macdonald firmly believes that the
salmon, which are such an important
article Of commerce on the Pacific coast,
can be transplanted to the streams on
the Atlantic seaboard. and that the Hud-
son River is specially adapted to their
cultivation. A few years ago a lot of
salmon fry, several millions in all, were
put in the head waters of the Hudson,
but this experiment was failure, be-
cause the small fry were eaten up by the
big fish already in the streams. This re-
suit did not shake Col. MacDonald's
faith in the possibility of transplanting
Pacific salmon on the Atlantic seaboard,
but it convinced him that it was not
possible to try the experiment with
helpless fry. He determined to make
helpless fry. He determined to make
another experiment with young salmon
big enough to have some show of taking
care of themselves, and he made prepar-
ations for second attempt, which re-
suited in the experiment made Saturday.
In the carrying out of this experiment
Col. Macdonald has been assisted by A.
n. Cheney of Glens Falls, n. Y, an en-
thusiastic fisherman and recognized
authority on matters pertaining to fish
and fishing, Mr.. Cheney selected the
head waters of the Battenkill as a favor
able spot to make the experiment in, and
he went to Arlington few weeks ago to
look over the ground. There he sought
the assistance of L. p. Warner, member
of the Vermont Fish and Game League
and one of the most successful trout fish
ermen in the State. Mr.. Warner is well
known as the popular landlord of the
Arlington House, and he is well known
all over Vermont as an expert with the
rod and line and man with a seemingly
ineXhaustible fund of fish stories, all of
them entertaining and most of them
true. He knows every foot of the Bat
tenkill and the streams that flow into it,
and with Mr.. Cheney made careful ex-
animation to select the places most suita-
BILE for planting the young salmon. They
decided on Green river and the Benedict,
Matteson and Deming brooks. These
are streams of clear running water, IA
vorite haunts of the trout and with many
good sized pools that afford just the
facilities needed for planting the young
salmon.
The eggs from which the salmon plant
ed Saturday were Matched came from
California. They were taken to the
hatchery of the New York State Fish
Commission at Cold Spring Harbor, Long
Island, and were there Matched out about
nine months ago. The hatchery at Cold
Spring Harbor is a New York State in
stitution in which the United States Fish
Commission is interested, the National
and State Commissions working
together in harmony. Special care was
taken at the hatchery in raising the
young salmon. The Matching process
was success and then the young fish were
carefully nurtured until they had reached
such size that it was thought they
could take care of themselves in the
trout streams. Salmon grow very rapid
ly and about month ago these had at
tanned such growth that the experts at
the hatchery believed it would be safe to
turn them loose in the Arlington trout
streams and leave them to shift for
themselves. Then Mr. Cheney went up
and, with Mr.. Warner, picked out
the planting places. Last week every
thing was ready and Saturday was select
ed as the day to carry out the expert
ment. Car No. 3 of of the United States
Fish Commission was sent to Cold
Spring Harbor to take the young salmon
and bring them there. This car is one of
the best in the service. Besides the cap
tain in charge of the car and his regular
crew j. Frank Ellis, the superintendent
of distribution for the Commission, came
on to have general oversight of the
work. Mr.. Cheney joined the car at
Troy and Mr.. Warner had charge of the
preparations at this end.
1t was expected that the car would az
rive in Arlington with the first train
from Troy, due at 9:45, and the teams
were waiting at the depot there, when
Mr.. Warner received telegram from Mr.
Cheney at Troy saying that the car had
been delayed and would not reach there
until afternoon.
The car came up on the flyer, little
after o'clock. 1t was the forward car
of the train and was side-tracked with
little delay. There was a fair-sized
crowd of people at the station, most of
whom were more or less interested in
fish, and they watched the work of trans
ferring the young salmon with a good