The Republican., 1899-07-06
MARYLAND FISHERIES.


Mr.. Georges Paper Read Before AmeIi-
can Fisheries Society.
The Maryland delegates to the an
nual con, 3ntion TO the American
| FisheriesSociety atNiagaraF Falls have
returned home, and they report Il
most successful convention. The
| Maryland delegates are John f. Ster-
ling and \. f. George, Fish Commits
sioners, and James c. Tawes, ex-Fish
| Commissioner. They report the CON
vention, which was held on June %
and %, to have been the largest ever
held. The Fish Commissioners and
prominent pisciculturalists from
| many States were present, and all
made gratifying reports of the prog
| ress of fish culture in their several
States.
Fish Commissioner a. f. George
read a paper on the Fish and Fish
cries of Maryland. = in which he gave
much interesting information. He
said in part:
NO other State in the Union, in
proportion to its area, has a greater
coast line than Maryland. The Ches-
apeake bay, extending into the State
for distance of 1870 miles, is from to
20 miles wide and covers an area of
| 916 square miles. If we include its
tributaries up to tidewater, we have
an area of 2,359 square miles within
| the State. Then to this we add the
| inland rivers and mountain streams
and we are not surprised to find the
| fish industry of Maryland to be one
! of the greatest i'll the country, Occu-
| pying as it does, place in the front
among the states engaged in the fish
| cry industry. Nor are we surprised
| when the United States Fish Commits
| sion tell us that the fisheries of Mary
! land give employment to more than
! II, 600 persons, with an invested capi-
| tai i'll 1890 of SI649, ,904, having the
! largest fleet of vessels engaged in its
| fisheries and the most extensive pack
| ing and canning houses, while it's
| fishing products, including shellfish,
were valued at $6,019, 165.
Professor Baird, eX-United States
Fish Commissioner, has made the
statement that one acre of water
properly cared for will produce five
| times as much as an acre of land If
this is correct, then what great posi-
bilities lie before the people of Mary
! land for the increase of their wealth,
for the employment of still larger
numbers of her people and the fur
nishing of great quantities of the best
food fishes at moderate prices. The
thing that is needed to be done to
| bring this about is to give the Fish
Commission larger means to properly
develop the fisheries. to propagate
the best kinds of food and game fishes
in large numbers and enforce proper
laws for the sufficient protection of
the same.
In Garrett county, which is the
largest in area Of any county of the
State. there is fine trout fishing.
There, nearly 1000 feet above the sea.
you can find the beautiful Speckled
trout in its native element. In that
county are more trout streams than
in all the rest of the State combined.
There brook trout have been caught
% inches in length and weighing four
pounds. There you can have the
happiness and pleasure of angling fol
trout and bass which come to every
true disciple of Izaak Walton. The
historic Potomac river furnished al
illustration of what can be done by
stocking streams. Prior to 1858 there
were no bass in the Potomac. In
that year a lot of those fish were
brought from Wheeling creek, neal
Wheeling, w. Va, in the tender of a
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com
pany's locomotive and planted in the
river. At the close of the war that
river was one of the best bass streams
in the United States, and at this time
there are certain parts where the
excellent sport of catching large
numbers of bass can be had.
Among our fisheries the shad takes
first place. In 1880 the catch in Ma.