Evening star., 1915-05-23

| Diminishing ing to a close. has
shad Supply. agemens @ of Of the Ash
| ermen, the United States bureau of
! fisheries is sending out agents to count
| and chart carefully the thousands of
| nets that have been staked out so
| closely that they have come almost
| to clog many of the shore waters of
| bays and the courses of streams.
| The bureaus aim is to gather data
with which to continue it's efforts to
show the legislatures of Virginia and
Maryland and the fishermen of those
states that they have only themselves
| to thank for the deplorable plight of
| a valuable industry in what has al
ways been the most important shad
| fishing region on the Atlantic coast. As
] the bureau officials have been pointing
| out for years, the fishermen are really
| killing the fish that lay their golden
eggs. for they are overf1shing the bays
| and lower reaches of the streams to
| such an extent that very few of the
fish can possibly get to the spawning
| grounds in the upper portions of the
| streams, and therefore the normal re-
plenishment of the species cannot take
| place.
Neither can the abnormal replenish-
ment be carried on successfully under
me me circumstances This latter work
the bureau of fisheries has engaged in
most successfully when the co-opera-
| ton OF state laws and fishing practices
could be secured. but this has been
lacklne IN the Chesapeake bay region
| ana the bureau has been placed in the
discouraging position of working al
most solely for the interests Of the
fishermen in the face of their indifrer-
ence and at times even against their
I
the shad fishing industry has shown
sharper and sharper declines in recent
years until in 1915 it is almost a com
| plete failure
Wnat the bureau of fisheries is try
ing to get legislators and fishermen to
see IS that an animal industry is Who'll
~ dependent on the preservation of
brood stock. whether it deals with
r nerds OF carefully numbered cattle on
urS iano or with schools of fish under
mated. Shad. like salmon, are miera-
tory hsh, spending the greater portion
or the year in the ocean and run
ning Ih In great schools or runs" in
Iresh r. water streams to lay their eggs.
1t Is during these runs that the nets
are set to catch the shad.
! so long as reasonable number es-
grounds all will be well, the f1sheries
experts explain, for each female laws
thousands of eggs. Under the normal
hazards of muddy waters and failure of
IereiiizatIon only about per cent of
the eggs laid hatch. but this proportion
mas been immeasurably bettered in
streams where the bureau of fisheries
maintains hatcheries. Near the hatch
eries agents gather eggs from fish as
they are caught by the fishermen. Fer
tilization is then brought about and
the eggs are hatched in Jars, the cry
heing liberated later. Under these
methods about 95 per cent of the eggs
hatch.
Such work. with protecting laws,
would not only keep the supply of fish
up to the point that was considered
normal in the past, the bureau points
| out. but would steadily increase the
both fishermen and consumers. With
out laws prohibiting the setting Of
nets in certain waters. however, the
federal fish experts say they cannot
blows that are being struck at the
very foundation of the shad fishing IN
dustry in the Chesapeake region.
What can be accomplished when the
bureau of fisheries receives the Coop
Grafton Of local authorities is shown
In the conditions prevailing in the
southern shad fishing waters Of North
Carolina. Matters were becoming about
as bad in that region ten years ago as
they are now in the Chesapeake, when
the state legislature passed laws re-
stricting nets and SO preserving
channel to the spawning grounds. In
1905 the egg collections of the bureaus
Albemarble sound hatchery had fallen
to less than 100000. In the following
! year. when the protective legislation
had become effective. over 25.000.000
eggs were taken. By 1913 the collec-
tions had reached about 100000, 900
was the greatest in the history of the
locality. Minor setbacks occurred in
1914 and 1915. but were due to unprece-
dented storms, which kept the fsh
from the spawning grounds.
How the government is raising sheep
as by-product to keeping irrigation
| bitches clean on the
| Sheep as Salt river irrigation
pn.4 project in Arizona, and
| oy-A Aouue'' Is saving money by the
plan, is brought out in recent report
to the reclamation service.
| The growth of Johnson grass and
weeds and the burrowing gophers fur
nished the principal obstacles to keep
ing the bitches clean and water-tight
| in past years. Keeping the growth
down by hand was costly. and there
was much loss of water from breaks
due to gopher holes. Since the recla-
| nation service bought 1000 sheep about
| year ago and placed them along the
| bitches of the project there has been
a reduction In the cost OF maintaining
the forty miles of bitches from $7,494
to 1886 year.
| When all cost Of caring for the sheep
| is taken into account. it Is found that
the reclamation service made a profit
| Of over $4,000 in the last nine months
OF 1914 by going into the sheep busi-
ness" This year the showing will
probably be better still. for the ewes
| have been bred and wool will be
clipped.
| The benefits from the use of sheep as
ditch cleaners do not stop with the
| keeping down of weeds. the reclama-
ton service has found. The sharp
hoofs of the animals pack the banks.
| reduce seepage and drive out the
gophers.
So successful have been the expert
ments with sheep along the bitches of
the Salt river project that the recla-
| nation service is considering the In
| PRODUCTION of the animals on other
projects, and will probably recommend
| it's newly discovered method of ditch
| irrigated regions of the southwest and
| west.
| Haw far must the average farmer in
the United States haul his crops to
| market? Exactly
Farmers Average six and a half
| miles, it can be
| naul VI oAops' answered. for the
/ h,ro,,, orop oafirpa tha De.