Arizona republican., 1893-09-26
MANY MILLIONS OF Eaes.

Distributed by the United States Fish
Commission Al Over the Country.
The United States fish commission,
which busies itself with the propaga-
ton and distribution of edible fish in
the waters of all parts of the country,
stocking rivers with species new to the
region, distributing eggs and young
fish to the lakes and seacoasts, and
working in a vast number of ways to
the one end, distributed during the
year 1892 the prodigious number of
306, $50, 432 eggs and fish, embracing
nearly every kind of food fish known
to the world. The largest operations
were in shad. Next TO shad, cod was
the fish most distributed, and Of white
fish, lake trout, pike, perch, salmon,
fat fish and Holsters the distribution
Of eggs and young fry ran far up into
the millions of each, almost every
state and territory getting a share.
The work of the commission is of great
Importance and substantial value.
From year to year the results are
cumulative and already are becoming
worth millions of dollars annually to
the country. 1t is regarded by the
Portland oregonian as singular that
nature has not developed various kinds
| of fish in all waters well suited 20
them; but it is so, and the work of the
commission to an extent thus supplies
deficiency of nature. Shad, for
example, was not native fish in our
Pacific coast waters, but the com
mission has introduced it, and now it
is beginning to appear in numbers in
most of our streams from California to
| Alaska.
The commission is giving great at
tention to study of the oyster and
means and conditions of its propaga-
ton. II is admitted that on our coast,
as well as on the Atlantic, there are
many places where cultivation of the
oyster can be carried to high degree
of perfection, with increasing profit,
On the coast Of New Jersey canals have
| been dug from the ocean into the in
terror ON small scale, opening into
! ponds, and the success that has been
attained IN the production of the oy-
ster in that locality proves that If the
work were carried out on an extended
scale it would become source of inn
mense utility and profit. The like can
be done at numerous places on the Pa
cific coast, where fresh and salt water,
under proper conditions, can be
brought together, Success in oyster
culture depends, to very great extent,
upon the feeding conditions that the
oyster can obtain. The French have
developed the conditions of oyster pro-
duction with highest success. They
have proved in the use of the still pond
how to provide the best conditions for
a profusion of food organisms as the
surest aid to the rapid and tasteful
conditioning of the oyster. They ere
ate pond, shallow and well warmed,
almost currentless, where salt water is
kept uniformly tempered by fresh
streams, the bottom so disposed that
the sediment, otherwise very fatal,
will deposit naturally in the trenches
and not overspread the prolific beds OF
oyster food organisms. 1t is necessary
to learn and follow the conditions Of
success developed elsewhere through
experience, and adapted and modified
to our particular situations If we
would get satisfactory results in mat
tiers like these. 1t is clear, however,
that this general science of propaga-
tion OF life in the waters, for utility
and profit of man, is yet but in its in
fancy. The development of it through
study and experience is clearly des-
tined to great results.