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 Fish Culture Compared i,i Impwiancc with Ag.'icnitnre, 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HOI. ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT, 
 
 OF ISTETST YOKK3 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 MAI 18, 1872. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 
 
 REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONaRESS, 
 
 1872, 
 
ii 
 
 rv 
 D 
 
 
FISH CULTURE. 
 
 Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Speaker, the art 
 of cultivating fish by artificial means is no new 
 thing, it is not an untried theory, resting more 
 in hope than in experience, but has passed 
 from the 'realm of experiment into absolute 
 certainty. It has become a fixed art, and, 
 although as yet scarcely developed, has grown 
 into a business of considerable magnitude and 
 great importance. Persons unacquainted with 
 the matter have little idea of the discoveries 
 which have been made and the wonderful suc- 
 cesses of those who have devoted themselves 
 to the study and investigation of this subject, 
 and do not appreciate the extent of the 
 influence which it is certain to exercise on 
 the future of this country, a country that is 
 wonderfully blessed in this particular as in 
 all others, and is adapted to fish culture to a 
 degree that exists nowhere else. 
 
 The older nations had a vague notion of this 
 industry. In China it has been carried on for 
 centuries, as well ages ago as it is now, like 
 most of the discoveries of that unprogressive 
 people. The Romans were scarcely so well 
 informed, and only developed the natural 
 method; and the first real attempts which pro- 
 duced practical results were made in France 
 in quite modern times, when the discoveries 
 of the past were discovered over again. In 
 that scientific and cultivated nation, however, 
 the matter attracted immediate attention, and 
 its importance was appreciated by a people 
 which has long been forced to make the most of 
 its food resources. The Government took it in 
 
 hand, and, soon satisfied of its practicability, 
 built the national establishment at Arcachon. 
 At first blunders, of course, were made. Find- 
 ing uncertainty, an uncertainty arising solely 
 from ignorance, in impregnating and hatching 
 the artificially impregnated eggs, resort was had 
 to collect the ova from the various streams 
 of the country, after it had been deposited 
 there, in the natural method, and developing 
 it under proper supervision and guarded from 
 enemies and disease. Directions were at the 
 same time published for stripping the parent 
 fish of their eggs, so that the ripe spawn might 
 also be saved from any mature individuals 
 which should happen to be caught. 
 
 This plan, however, was unsatisfactory ; it 
 was but little more than robbing Peter to pay 
 Paul. Not only was much unripe and worth- 
 less spawn taken through ignorance or cupid- 
 ity, but the natural supply was carried from 
 the streams to such an extent that they were 
 greatly denuded, and were run down to a 
 degree which was hardly made good by the 
 supplies of young fry which were afterward 
 sent to them from the national establishment. 
 These errors were, however, corrected in time ; 
 greater knowledge and skill were attained, 
 better methods and machinery were invented, 
 and in the end Arcachon became a success, fish- 
 culture triumphed over the obsracles in its way, 
 and many of the waters of France which had 
 been entirely depleted were replenished, and 
 the fisheries were restored to a condition of 
 fruitfulness which they had not known for 
 
years, while a most important article of diet 
 was furnished to the people at cheaper rates 
 and in more abundant -quantities. Up to this 
 time deterioration and increasing scarcity had 
 been the rule, but soon an improvement began 
 which has far more than repaid the expense 
 incurred by the Government, and has led to 
 consequences the public value of which cannot 
 be overestimated. 
 
 England was not long in following the ex- 
 ample of France. The salmon fishery has been 
 the principal estuary and fresh- water fishery 
 of Great Britain, and it also had been injured 
 by mismanagement and neglect and overwork, 
 Salmon had long been far beyond the reach 
 of all but the wealthier classes, and even they 
 were beginning lo experience trouble to obtain 
 as much as they needed at reasonable rates. 
 Streams which had yielded abundantly within 
 the memory of man were comparatively unpro- 
 ductive, and in some instances were absolutely 
 bare offish. The Irish and Scotch fisheries 
 were not so badly off as those of England, but 
 even they were reduced far below what they 
 had been. Steps were taken to replenish 
 these, partly by private action, partly by public. 
 Parliament, appointed boards of fish conserv- 
 ators and an inspector of salmon fisheries and 
 paid liberal salaries, and passed wise laws for 
 the protection of the young and the spawning 
 fish. The consequences were the same as they 
 had been in France, and soon fish became 
 more plenty; the salmon fishery in one river 
 having more than doubled in actual rental in a 
 few years, while the yield was proportionally 
 increased. Germany, Austria, Russia, all fol- 
 lowed the example ; all made this a national 
 enterprise and found it to their interest to pay 
 liberally to restock their waters with a means 
 of supplying food to the people which had been 
 so nearly annihilated. In all, establishments for 
 the artifical propagation of the most valuable 
 varieties are established at various points, and 
 yearly furnish most gratifying evidences of the 
 industrial value of this, which promises to be 
 the most widely beneficial of all the discoveries 
 of modern times; for if it is true that that man 
 is a public benefactor who has made two blades 
 of grass grow where one grew before, much 
 more so is he who has restored to the people 
 a food supply which had almost ceased to exist. 
 
 and the extinction of which was looked upon' 
 as the necessary consequence of the increase 
 of population, it being expected to expire 
 precisely when it was most needed. 
 
 Such is a cursory statement of what has 
 been done abroad. It alone would justify the 
 United States in following the example of the 
 older nations, and taking this matter under 
 national protection. It is essentially a national 
 matter; the States alone cannot take charge of 
 it and manage it efiiciently ; they cannot even 
 pass laws which will thoroughly protect the 
 fish at seasons when they should not be dis- 
 turbed. Rivers run through different States, or 
 are the boundaries between them, and the laws 
 made for part or for one shore might not be 
 identical with those made for other places. 
 Unity of action is essential, for it is useless to 
 protect in one locality if wanton destruction is 
 permitted in another. 
 
 Many species are migratory ; that is, pafes 
 from the ocean at certain seasons of the year 
 after they have grown fat feeding there during 
 their period of rest, up the streams into the 
 fresh water, where alone can they deposit their 
 eggs and hatch their young. In these cased 
 the fishermen along the coast are jealous of 
 those on the upper waters ; the former com- 
 plain that the latter destroy the parents whil6' 
 they are spawning, and in this way destroy thie( 
 race; while the latter complain that the coast 
 fishermen use improper and murderous methods 
 of fishing, and kill out the entire supply before 
 they can have a chance to reach their spawn- 
 ing beds. Unfortunately, both these com-, 
 plaints are too well founded. Each clas^ 
 takes all it can, blind to the future, which 
 presses closer and closer on the heels of such 
 want of foresight ; it looks only to immediate 
 gratification, and accepts the proverb, "after 
 me a famine." 
 
 The navigable streams of this country are 
 subject to the jurisdiction of the national Gov- 
 ernment, and this is even more clearly the case 
 with the coast line within three miles of the 
 shore. This is a general rule of law, and if 
 there are any exceptions to it they do not 
 exist in the western States, where the rivers 
 were expressly reserved to the nation. It is 
 not necessary for the purposes of this applica- 
 tion to maintain so broad a proposition, as it 
 
is not intended to take any actual control of 
 legislation on this subject at present, but only 
 to develop the natural resources by artificial 
 means, restock waters which have been ex- 
 hausted, spread information concerning the 
 matter, and lead the people either to protect- 
 ing their own rivers or to granting unques- 
 tionable authority to Congress to do so. And 
 it is to that alone which the proposed law 
 addresses itself 
 
 The progress made abroad has been stated, 
 and it has been shown to be sufficiently en- 
 couraging to induce our country to follow the 
 example, but the cases are different in many 
 ,, points, and in every point to the advantage 
 of the United States. The extent of our inland 
 waters is something that is hardly understood 
 abroad, and is not properly appreciated at 
 home. Our vast lakes, enormous rivers, in- 
 numerable streams, brooks, ponds, bays, 
 ^^eoons, creeks, and rivulets, are not equaled 
 , in any other quarter of the globe. In the 
 pState of New York alone we have far more 
 ■area of water than in Great Britain and France 
 united, the actual acreage being 466,457 
 acres, while entire foreign States might be 
 :almost swallowed up in several of our larger 
 Jakes. Our rivers run a distance equal to one 
 $fth of the circumference of the globe, and 
 are navigable thousands of miles above their 
 ^mouths. But more important than all this is 
 i;t.he character of our fish, for we have the finest 
 \..fi8h in the world for artificial cultivation, the 
 ^,mQ8t prolific, the easiest managed, and the 
 yipost remunerative. This is a superiority more 
 ,^4™portant than the other matters, and in this 
 ;.,tilature has been, wonderfully kind to us. 
 
 In order to explain this difference I shall 
 ^jbave to describe with some detail the njethod 
 vjpf manipulating the parents and raising the 
 ^jpung under the, artificial method. Fish are 
 .(-•exceedingly prolific ; nature seems to have 
 made them the great store-house of food 
 which was to be held in reserve until an in- 
 creasing population should have required it for 
 , support. Every need of the humankind seems 
 to be met as it is developed, and the earth ap- 
 parently holds in its recesses the secrets which 
 are to keep the world thriving and progress- 
 !. for ages, and until it shall be covered with 
 a swarming and happy population, denser than 
 
 is now imagined to be possible, or than learned 
 essayists on a subject they do not comprehend 
 would permit as at all prudent. Fish food is 
 manifestly one of the means which are to 
 make such a result possible, and intellectual 
 care is to develop this resource to a degree as 
 . yet hardly dreamed of by the most enthusiastic. 
 
 Different species of fish, however, vary re- 
 markably in the extent of their fecundity. A 
 cod and a herring each deposit a million 
 eggs, so that a dozen females of either, 
 were all their eggs to hatch and attain ma- 
 turity, would furnish the entire yield of the 
 present time. Twelve million cod is an in- 
 credible number, and unless nature had pro- 
 vided a means of reducing this fecundity the 
 ocean would long ago have been filled, till 
 there would have been more fish than water, 
 and the sea would have been foul with their 
 decaying bodies. There is, however, no danger 
 of any such state of affairs ; the difficulty at 
 present lies in the other direction. These are 
 the most prolific species, but the others do not 
 come so far behind, shad producing from ten 
 to twenty thousand eggs to each pound of their 
 weight, and consequently yielding from thirty 
 thousand to one hundred thousand eggs each. 
 Salmon and trout are not so productive, hav- 
 ing only about two thousand eggs to each pound, 
 and not even that in the largest. We have not 
 yet learned to breed cod or herring, but we can 
 breed shad, and hence we have an advantage 
 over the European nations that is precisely 
 proportionate to the relation that two bears to 
 twenty. Here is an immense point gained, 
 for shad grow as rapidly or nearly as rapidly 
 as salmon and far more so than trout, and they 
 are as delicious a fish on the table if not quite 
 so substantial a meal. 
 
 Nor is this all. Salmon and trout require 
 three months or thereabouts to hatch, while 
 shad hatch within a week. The former must 
 be carefully watched and have special appli- 
 ances in the matter of water and location; the 
 latter need no attention, and hatch in a com- 
 mon box with a wire grating fastened over the 
 bottom. Salmon and trout are helpless for 
 thirty days after they are born, being weighed 
 down with what is called the umbilical sack, 
 the unabsorbed portion of the egg. Shad are 
 able to take care of themselves and seek their 
 
6 
 
 own food the moment they burst the shell. The 
 former must be fed when young and pro- 
 tected from their enemies for months, salmon 
 not leaving the fresh water and descending to 
 the sea usually till a year or more after biith, 
 whereas the little shad seek the ocean as soon 
 as they are turned loose, and need no care or 
 food till they come back grown fish ready for 
 the gridiron or the baking-pan. 
 
 To explain these differences fully, and to show 
 also what can be done even with the least pro- 
 lific fish, it will be necessary to describe the 
 mode of raising the young by hand as it were, 
 for it is not intended to confine the national 
 operations of fish culture t^ shad by any means, 
 or to exclude the nobler and more valu- 
 able if more troublesome salmon. There are 
 three great classes of fish as viewed from the 
 stand-point of the fish-culturist, each having 
 a different mode of laying its eggs and raising 
 its young. First, the salmon tribe, what 
 ichthyologists call the salmonidce, which de- 
 posit their eggs in fresh cold water, digging 
 nests for them and covering them up as fast 
 as they are impregnated by the male; sec- 
 ondly, the herring family, which includes the 
 shad, another migratory species, but whose 
 eggs are left uncovered to drift in compara- 
 tively siill fresh water; and, thirdly, the 
 perch family, which includes the black bass, 
 which deposit their eggs in a mass kepttogether 
 by a mucous or gelatenous substance which is 
 exuded with them. The latter cannot be 
 hatched artificially, the mode of manipulating 
 either fish or spawn not having been discov- 
 ered, and it is only with the first two classes 
 that the fish-culturist has anything to do at pres- 
 ent, and these differ wholly in their methods 
 of incubation, if that word can be used in 
 default of a better. 
 
 The female salmon digs out a hollow with 
 her nose and tail in the bottom of some cold 
 stream, near its head- waters, and where the 
 current has a gentle and regular flow. She 
 brushes away the dirt and sand with her fins 
 and leaves a bottom of broken stones the size 
 of a bantam's egg. All this while her accepted 
 mate, who has won her favor possibly after 
 many a tough battle with rival suitors, watches 
 near at hand to drive off interlopers. As soon 
 as she has prepared the nest to her satistac- 
 
 tion and the first throes of egg birth come 
 upon her the male darts to her side, presses 
 close against her, often seizing her by the gills 
 and exudes the fertilizing fluid with his body 
 in contact with hers, so that the eggs receive 
 it the moment they issue. This act over and the- 
 male retires for a time to resume his watch^ 
 calmly devouring any stray eggs which come 
 in his way or have been carried off by the 
 current, while the female proceeds to cover 
 those which have been impregnated. To do 
 this she brings stones with her fins carefully 
 and places them so as to protect but not injure- 
 her precious deposit. She is aided by the fact 
 that salmon eggs are almost as heavy as shot 
 and have the faculty of sticking for almost 
 half an hour to whatever they touch whea 
 they are first exuded, although they afterward 
 become free. So they sink at once and adhere 
 to the bottom long enough for her to cover them 
 before they are washed away. As soon as the 
 first deposit is properly covered, the operation 
 of spawning is renewed, and so on perhaps for 
 several days, till quite a mound of small stones 
 is erected on the spot where the fishy labors 
 have been expended. Then the parents, 
 weary, exhausted, ugly, ungainly, almost dead, 
 descend slowly to the sea, sickly in themselves 
 and worthless as food until fine living on fat 
 crustaceans and lively minnows shall have re- 
 stored their flesh, strength, and beauty. At 
 this season they are utterly unfit for food, and 
 those who eat them often eat maggots as well, 
 and the ignorant epicures who put on their 
 tables these fish in December have the satis- 
 faction of knowing that they are eating salmon 
 flavored with worms, and very poor and thin 
 at that. 
 
 But no sooner has that pair of spawners 
 left their nest than another pair comes along, 
 and here begins the first difficulty in piscato- 
 rial housekeeping, for the second pair are 
 exceedingly apt to select for their operations 
 the identical spot chosen by the first, not only 
 destroying the nest utterly but devouring with 
 apparent gusto all the eggs which were so 
 carefully housed. By instinct the most favor- 
 able spots, as where a brook comes in, or a 
 spring bubbles up from the bottom, are first 
 chosen, and these will be dug over half a 
 dozen times, perhaps, before the last pair 
 
visits it and secures it for their young. Nev- 
 ertheless, the perils of the embryotic state 
 are not over by any means, for all creatures 
 that live on or in the water seem to be fond 
 of fish-roe. Eels wriggle about it, ducks 
 poke their bills among the stones to reach 
 it, little shiners and minnows devour it, 
 and water-bugs of many varieties live on it. 
 Nor is that all ; sedinient settles on it, silt 
 washes over and smothers it, and fungus grows 
 on it. It must be free to a steady flow of 
 water or it will perish, and one bad egg will 
 contribute the contagion to a dozen healthy 
 ones. 
 
 The wonder is not that fish are so scarce, 
 but that there are any at all. Still, some of 
 it hatches, and what have we now ? A poor, 
 miserable little fish, half an inch long, left 
 to his own resources in the world to get his 
 breakfast, dinner, and tea as best he can ; 
 and not only that, but actually loaded down 
 with a big bag like an extra belly, which he 
 must carry about with him and which impedes 
 his every motion for thirty days. No wonder 
 he hides his head under the stones and falls 
 an easy prey to enemies too numerous to men- 
 tion. Suppose he makes his way to shallow 
 wa,ter, and there near the shore he hides till he 
 has gathered strength and activity. He has 
 to wait from six to eighteen months before he 
 can venture to the sea, for were the fry in 
 their then condition placed in salt water they 
 would perish at once. The eggs are laid in 
 November or December, and the fry appear 
 in January, February, or March, according to 
 the temperature of the water — the warmer 
 the water, thequicker the young hatch, but the 
 nfore slowly they are developed the stronger 
 they are supposed to be, their period of gesta- 
 tion varying from seventy-five to one hundred 
 and twenty days. Next fall about one half of 
 them will change their appearance and become 
 covered with visible scales. They are then 
 technically called smolts, and the scales, smolt 
 scales, and then they are ready to descend to 
 the sea. The residue will not undergo their 
 change till a year later, when they also will 
 seek a new life. When they have attained this 
 age they are, comparatively speaking, safe, and 
 are pretty sure to return the following spring 
 
 as grilse, which is the sporting name of a 
 salmon that has not spawned, and will weigh 
 from two to six pounds, and be as beautiful fish 
 as ever gladdened the heart of sportsman or 
 stomach of epicure. After spawning they wiU 
 again go to the sea and once more return the 
 ensuing year the magnificent salmon of from six 
 to twelve pounds, and thereafter gain every sea- 
 son nearly half a dozen pounds till they come 
 to kick the beam at seventy or eighty, having 
 attained an age that is a mere matter of con- 
 jecture. 
 
 Salmon invariably return to the river where 
 they were bred. This has been conclusively 
 proved by many interesting experiments, one 
 alone of which need be mentioned. The sec- 
 ond back fin, the small adipose dorsal as it ia 
 termed, has been cut oflF before they were 
 allowed to descend the river, and while they 
 were shut up in some fresh-water pond. Grilse 
 and salmon were afterward taken in the same 
 stream without this fin. This habit seems to 
 rule with all fish of an anadromous dis- 
 position, and although there was a doubt 
 
 whether it held good with shad, that doubt 
 
 has been removed, and it is now established i <t / 
 that not only will these return to the place where 
 they first saw life, but to the particular spot, 
 rarely stopping short, or ascending higher, 
 even, than that locality. 
 
 It is perfectly apparent, from this short ex- 
 planation, that the ova incur innumerable 
 risks and are far more than decimated before 
 they hatch. The only wonder is that any live, 
 and it has been estimated that not one in five 
 hundred comes to maturity. With this explan- 
 ation it ceases to be a matter of surprise that 
 nature has given this class of creatures such 
 wonderful recuperative power ; were it other- 
 wise the race would die out in the face of so 
 many difficulties and enemies. But at the same 
 time the slightest thought will show how enorm- 
 ously this fecundity can be made to work in 
 the interest of man, and what a ready means 
 is here offered for the increase of food for the 
 human race. Care can remove these dangers 
 and drive away or exterminate these enemies, 
 and turn this fertility to full advantage ; and 
 the method of doing so I will proceed briefly 
 to explain. 
 
8 
 
 The salmon, when they ascend the river to 
 spawn, are shut in some suitable part of the 
 water, being either inveigled there as a favor- 
 able spawning-ground or caught in nets and 
 forcibly put there ; and when they are^ fully 
 ready, when they are ripe, as it is termed; 
 that is, when the eggs lie p'erfectly loose and 
 free in the stomach, they are taken from the 
 water, held over a tin pan, and forced to ex- 
 trude the spawn and milt by gentle pressure on 
 their sides with the hand. And in this oper- 
 ation a wonderful advance has been made 
 within the last year. Heretofore it was the 
 custom to fill the pans with the water, as this 
 was supposed to most nearly resemble the 
 natural method ; but now little or no water is 
 used, it being found that water drowns the 
 spermatozoa or life principle of the milt. 
 This change of practice alone has made a 
 difference of fully twenty per cent, of the 
 yield, as it is found that the impregnation is 
 far more certain by this plan. Care must be 
 taken, however, that the fish are entirely ripe, 
 and that the eggs will run out under a slight 
 pressure ; if they will not the fish is returned 
 to the water till it is in proper condition. 
 
 The eggs are left for half an hour undisturbed, 
 and then are washed and spread in troughs 
 which are filled to the depth of an inch with 
 clean pebbles, and through which flows a gen- 
 tle current of filtered spring water, and there 
 they remain away from fowls and fish and 
 bugs, safe from sediment and fungus till they 
 hatch. They only require occasional exami- 
 natioa for the purpose of preventing the col- 
 lection of deleterious matter, and to remove 
 such as may die and endanger the others. 
 When they hatch they are left in the troughs 
 till the umbilical sack is absorbed, when they 
 are placed in ponds and fed on beef liver finely 
 grated. Under this management all the seri- 
 ous perils of the natural method are averted 
 and the difference in the result is almost in- 
 credible, being little less than as a thousand 
 to one. 
 
 These directions apply to all the salmon 
 tribe — the salmon, the trout, the salmon- 
 trout and the white-fish, all of which have the 
 same peculiarities. To explain the process 
 more fully, I will quote from the report of the 
 
 New York commissioners of fisheries, pre- 
 sented to the Legislature of that State March 
 19, 1872: 
 
 "State Hatching- Houte. — By the last amendment 
 to the act of the Legislature, concerning the proteo- 
 tion offish in this State, the commissioners of fish- 
 eries were authorized to build a State hatching 
 establishment for the purpose of breeding the better 
 kinds of fish for distribution throughout the wa.ters 
 of the State. This building was erected during the 
 summer of 1870, and was completed in time for use 
 in the artificial incubation of salmon-trout and 
 whi*,e-fish. It is neither a very large nor a very 
 costly establishment, but is the most efiicient, prac- 
 tically, and the most productive in results of any in 
 the world. The water is introduced in the ordinary 
 way, through a number of flannel sieves, and is 
 led into twenty-four troughs, which are sixteen feet 
 in length by fifteen inches in the clear in width. 
 These troughs are raised about two feet from the 
 ground, so that a person sitting on a stool alongside 
 of them can readily examine the condition of the 
 ova during the period when they are hatching. The 
 lower end of the trough is an inch lower than the 
 upper end, so as to give a gentle motion to the 
 waters which are introduced into them. The water 
 flows from a spigot about an inch in diameter, and 
 through anotherflannelscreen,which is an additional 
 protection against the accumulation of sediment. 
 
 "The troughs stand in pairs, so that the workmen 
 can readily overlook them by passing on each side 
 through a passageway left for that purpose. They 
 are divided up into compartments at every two feet, 
 and at first, when the eggs are being hatched, the 
 water running through them is only about half an 
 inch deep. The moment, however, the fish are out 
 of the egg, screens are introduced at each compart- 
 ment, and a piece of board being put across the 
 lower end of the trough the water is raised to about 
 three inches in depth. 
 
 " The State hatching^house has been greatly en- 
 larged the past season, and operations for the winter 
 hatching of fish have been, on an unpreoedeated 
 scale, commenced. Millions of the spawn of salmon- 
 trout were taken there from the great lakes to be 
 distributed through the State, or to be developed and 
 then di.'<tribnted. It is much easier and less expen- 
 sive to distributo the ova than the young fishes. The 
 ova may be transported anywhere during the month 
 of December, but no later. More attention than 
 heretofore has been paid to the cultivation of salmon- 
 trout,' and less to that of white-fish, for it was found 
 that objection was made to the introduction of white- 
 fish in many of our ponds, on the ground that they 
 have to be c.^ught with a net, and that while they 
 are being taken, many other fish which could be 
 caught with a hook and line are destroyed at the 
 same time. With salmon-trout this is altogether 
 different; and as they bite readily at a hook, are a 
 handsome game fish, and good for the table, it is pro- 
 posed hereafter to raiseafar greater portionofthem, 
 and few, if any, white-fish. 
 
 \ 
 
9 
 
 "A full detailed account of these operations is 
 appended, and the eonamissioners pride themselves 
 upon not only building the cheapest and largest 
 fish-breeding cstablishmont in this country or in the 
 world, but also in building one that has in every way 
 proved an entire success, and which is capable of 
 supplying all the public waters in this State with all 
 the salmon tribes of fish." 
 
 So much for salmon. Now for shad; and it 
 is rather remarkable that the whole process is 
 dissimilar, so much so that it had actually to 
 be discovered over again. So entirely differ- 
 ent are the two processes that I cannot do 
 better than describe the manner in which the 
 latter mode was discovered. The credit of 
 this is due to our country, and to Mr. Seth 
 Green, of Rochester, New York, who is the 
 ablest pisciculturist to-day in the world, and 
 whose name will hereafter be written in the 
 list of those who have deserved well of the 
 Republic. He offered his services to the New 
 England commissioners, and proceeding to the 
 Connecticut river set about his operations in 
 May, 1857. He had little difficulty in catch- 
 ing ripe fish and none in extracting the 
 spawn, to which he was accustomed from 
 handling trout, although be afterward ascer- 
 tained that the true time to take the parents 
 was at night, from eight to twelve p. m., 
 as they seek the spawning beds principally 
 during the dark, but he soon found other and 
 more serious troubles. He naturally pursued 
 the same method he had followed with trout, 
 placing the impregnated eggs in a trough and 
 turning on a gentle current of water. What 
 was his surprise, however, when he saw all 
 the eggs wash out over the lower end of his 
 trough. Here was the first striking difference, 
 vtthereas trout eggs are almost as heavy as 
 shot. The ova of shad have little more spe- 
 cific gravity than water, and will nearly float 
 of themselves. Then he reduced the current 
 and the eggs all died. This was failure num- 
 ber one. He next tried leaving them in a pool 
 near shore, where there was no change of 
 water, and found the eggs all opaque and 
 lifeless next morning — failure number two. 
 He then built a low dam of small stones so 
 -as to make a pond in the course of the cur- 
 rent, and so that the water would find its way 
 through the crevices, but still only a trifling 
 quantity hatched — failure number three. He 
 
 next tried boxes, putting wire sieving over the 
 ends and the bottoms and the sides, but in 
 vain, till he was almost in despair, and the 
 season had nearly reached its close. Then 
 fortune favored him. He happened to be 
 p'anding in the water experimenting with a 
 box that had the wire sieving on the bottom, 
 and which was filled with eggs, and accident- 
 ally elevated the front end so that the current 
 struck the bottom at an angle. He observed 
 that some of the eggs lying in the lower end 
 were lifted and kept in motion like the bub- 
 bles boiling up in a tea-kettle; he elevated the 
 further end a little and more eggs boiled up ; 
 he raised it still further and they all com- 
 menced boiling madly, although the water did 
 not pass over the top of the box at the lower 
 end. The question was solved, and thereafter 
 shad hatching was a certainty and a success, 
 and no ordinary success either, for while of 
 trout and salmon nearly ten per cent, are lost 
 even now with dry impregnation, with shad the 
 loss is so trivial that, practically speaking, 
 absolutely all are hatched. 
 
 Mr. Green fell jubilant, but he was by no 
 means out of the woods. He soon had his 
 boxes filled with young, for instead of taking 
 months, like salmon, shad issue from the egg 
 in a few days, and he proceeded to dispose of 
 them as he would do with trout. The latter, 
 as soon as they can swim, seek the shore to 
 hide under grass, weeds, and stones, but when 
 the shad were set free in the shallow water all 
 the shiners, dace, minnows, killeys, and other 
 small fish in the entire neighborhood collected 
 as though they were invited to a feast, and 
 proceeded to devour them in a way that was 
 exceedingly painful to a parent's eye. Here 
 was a second perplexity, and there was noth- 
 ing for it but to wait for an explanation or an 
 inspiration. So a pond was built on the side 
 of the river, and the youthful adventurers lefl 
 there till some one should find out what to do 
 with them. Next morning they had appar- 
 ently all disappeared, and were finally found 
 huddled together at the outer edge of the pool. 
 Here was a suggestion, and to test its signifi- 
 cance another pond was made, narrow, but 
 running far out into the stream, and into this 
 the fry were transferred. Next morning they 
 were again discovered collected at its outward 
 
10 
 
 extremity, evidently trying to reach the center 
 of the river, and that problem was solved. 
 
 Now, the moment the shad are hatched, the 
 boxes are towed out into mid-stream, and 
 there, away from the small but dangerous foes 
 along shore, and too minute to attract the 
 bigger denizens of the deep water, the little 
 fish are turned loose to find their own way to 
 the ocean, which they do by gradually floating 
 down stream, keeping their heads to the cur- 
 rent to catch such food, invisible to man, as 
 may come along, and feebly wagging their tails 
 to acquire strength and activity. In two years 
 the males return weighing something under a 
 pound, and in three years they reappear, males 
 and females, the magnificent fish, from two 
 to five pounds, that are so welcome to our 
 table. 
 
 The difi"erence between the natural and arti- 
 ficial method is too great almost to appreciate. 
 Take the case of a shad depositing by the 
 natural method sixty *,housand eggs. Of these, 
 at the utmost, one hundred and twenty hatch, 
 and this is probably the outside limit. Of this 
 number say one quarter mature, the proportion 
 in this stage being a mere matter of conjec- 
 ture, and we have a final return of thirty for 
 two or fifteen for one. 
 
 Now, by the artificial method the entire 
 sixty thousand are hatched and started in life 
 away from their enemies. Of these, if a 
 quarter reappear, we have fifteen thousand in 
 lieu of thirty. Keep this up at a geometrical 
 ratio and the results are simply incalculable. 
 Rivers that are now deserted could be filled to 
 "repletion, so that there would be abundance for 
 netters, seiners, and fishermen of all kinds, 
 whether they fished in season or out of season, 
 early or late, and with murderous or legitimate 
 implements. This is the object to be obtained, 
 and although at first it may be desirable to 
 have protective laws till the propagating- 
 houses are established and in working, in the 
 end they should be all swept away and the 
 people allowed to pursue, catch, and eat when- 
 ever they might feel so inclined. No river on 
 our continent yields more than a million shad 
 annually; so that with a moderate eflPort the 
 supply could be immensely augmented ; but 
 the effort should not be suspended until at 
 least one hundred million young fry are placed 
 
 alive in every stream of considerable size at 
 present visited by these fine fish. 
 
 The vast superiority of shad raising over 
 salmon raising is perceived in a moment by 
 a comparison of the two systems. The for- 
 mer requires merely a few hundred boxes of 
 common wood, with wire sieving over the bot- 
 tom, covered with coal-tar to protect it from 
 the action of the water. These boxes have 
 pieces of wood nailed on their sides to act as 
 floats, and at such an angle as to keep the 
 bottom slightly inclined against the current, 
 the degree of inclination being regulated by 
 experiment. The boxes are strung behind one 
 another in long lines, their floats projecting 
 beyond the ends, and connected with ropes. 
 The whole swings with the tide if in a tide- way> 
 or tails out under the influence of the current, 
 and needs no care except at slack-water, when 
 they need jogging now and then to keep the 
 eggs from being smothered. The expense 
 of all this is so trifling as hardly to be worth 
 mentioning, while the product is immense. 
 
 The spawning-grounds are always near fish- 
 ing-stations, and the fishermen can readily be 
 induced to haul at night by a little extra 
 remuneration, as they use the fish whether 
 stripped or not. As soon as the net is hauled 
 ashore and the fish thrown into a boat a pan 
 half full of water — for dry impregnation has 
 not yet been tried, although it will probably 
 be universal in time — is placed near the oper- 
 ator, to whom the fish are handed one after 
 the other. He manipulates them, throwing 
 them aside as fast as they are stripped, and 
 when they have all been used he sets the pans 
 aside for half an hour, during which time the 
 eggs swell and become firm and turgid and the 
 water falls ten degrees in temperature. This 
 is repeated as often as the nets are hauled, and 
 finally the pans are taken to the boxes and 
 emptied into the latter, where the eggs remain 
 till they hatch, the period varying according to 
 the heat of the water from two days to seven. 
 Nothing can be simpler than all this, and 
 though, like everything else, it requires a little 
 practice, the roughest and most ignorant man 
 can soon acquire the requisite knowledge to 
 manage the establishment. 
 
 The great results which are promised by this 
 enterprise are not mere matters of guess-work j 
 
11 
 
 salmon have been cultivated abroad so as to 
 restock abundantly many streams which had 
 been entirely depleted, and liore the conse- 
 quences of shad culture have proved them- 
 selves to be exactly what it was predicted they 
 would be. The same fall that the first experi- 
 ments were made in the Connecticut, shad fry 
 were noticed as being unusually abundant in 
 the lower part of that river, more so than they 
 had been known to be within the memory of 
 the inhabitants. Three years later they re- 
 turned — they were not expected sooner, such 
 being their habit — and in numbers surpassing 
 anything that the fishermen had experienced 
 in years. At first this was supposed to be 
 only an accident, and was explained by the 
 unbelievers upon various theories, and these 
 asked a suspension of judgment until the 
 next year. But all theories in opposition were 
 put to rout next season when the fishing was 
 actually unprecedented, being better than had 
 been known in fifty years. So decided was 
 the effect of this improvement that the price 
 of shad fell in the northern markets to less 
 than one third of what it had been previously. 
 And I will in this connection again quote from 
 the report of the New York commissioners ; 
 
 " Shad were far more abundant and far cheaper 
 than they had been for years, both on the Connecti- 
 cut and the Hudson; especially so on the former 
 river, the yield from which actually glutted the mar- 
 kets and reduced the wholesale price from eighteen 
 dollars a hundred down to three. This was mani- 
 festly the consequence of the previous efforts, and 
 confirmed the predictions of those who had studied 
 the habits of the fish. It was expected that the 
 great body of such as were hatched would return in 
 three or four years full grown ; and it was exactly 
 fpur years previous that Mr. Seth Green, under the 
 auspices of the New England commissioners, had 
 first discovered the method of hatching shad, and 
 had placed many millions of young fry in the Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 "Most of these returned to the river where they 
 were born. The effect on the market, however, was 
 mainly attributable to the yield of that river, which 
 supplied New York and other adjacent cities so 
 abundantly as seriously to reduce the profits of the 
 fishermen on the Hudson. It is perfectly plain, 
 from these results, that unless active steps are taken 
 to restore our fisheries, and unless we keep pace in 
 this matter with our eastern neighbors, our fisher- 
 men will be entirely ruined. So entirely are the lat- 
 ter satisfied of this, that there is no difficulty in ob- 
 taining their consent to any measures that will tend 
 toward accomplishing this end. The experiences 
 of last season convinced the most incredulous, and 
 
 they are now as anxions to encourage fish culture as 
 they were once bitterly prejudiced against it." 
 
 When a process to add to the wealth and 
 resources of the nation is so simple and yet 
 so valuable, it would be criminal in the Gov- 
 ernment to refuse to lend a helping hand, as, 
 for the reasons already given, this can never 
 be a matter of private enterprise or even 
 of State industry. Trout can be preserved 
 in private ponds, and should be, as they are, 
 left to professional fish culturists to produce, 
 and these drive quite a trade and make large 
 profits, there being many hundreds of thou- 
 sandsof dollars invested in the business ; butno 
 one individual can retain any ownership over 
 a fish which must go to the sea, nor can even 
 any single State, except in the rare case of 
 the river being entirely within its own juris- 
 diction. We have established a National Bu- 
 reau of Agriculture on a large and expensive \ 
 scale. Why should there not be a similar in- 
 stitution for pisciculture? At least we can 
 take a step in that direction, and begin on so 
 small a scale as is proposed by this provision 
 of law. 
 
 The relative fertility of the water and the 
 land is altogether in favor of the water. An 
 acre of land will produce corn enough to sup- I 
 port a human being, but an acre of water will 
 support several persons, and could readily be 
 made, with proper aid, to sustain the lives of 
 many more. The former requires manuring, 
 working, planting, and harvesting; the latter 
 merely requires harvesting; and that where 
 the fish are sufficiently abundant is hardly a 
 labor at all. While ihe yield from the land is 
 reasonably large, the profit is exceedingly 
 small. The field must be plowed, and 
 harrowed, and fertilized ; the corn must be 
 planted ; it must be plowed again ; and still 
 again, must be hoed ; and at last the ears must 
 be stripped, husked, and ground. What is the 
 net result of this compared with the natural 
 increase of fish grown in abundance, almost 
 without effort, finding their own food, and 
 finally taken in some net which does its fish- 
 ing while its owner is sleeping? 
 
 Then the relative productiveness; the ear 
 of corn grown from a single kernel will more 
 frequently fall below than rise above a thou- 
 sand grains. A shad lays, say sixty thousand 
 
12 
 
 eggs, of which we have said fifteen thousand 
 can be brought to maturity with the care and 
 oversight of man. Were the farmer to strew 
 his corn broadcast over sod and rock alike, 
 " by the wayside and on the stony places," 
 and leave it to come up with weeds and tares 
 without manure or attention, he would hardly 
 expect a good crop, and would find much 
 trouble in living on the proceeds, no matter 
 how much land he owned, and yet this is pre- 
 cisely what we do with fish. To judge by what 
 has been effected it may be confidently asserted 
 that fish culture is yet to add a very large pro- 
 portion to the wealth and resources of the 
 world, above all to the riches of this continent. 
 At present our vast lakes are left untilled, 
 some of the smaller ponds and many streams 
 in the older and more thickly settled States 
 have absolutely no edible fish in them, and 
 some no fish whatever ; the hook, the net, the 
 spear and the ' ' jack" — night-spearing — has an- 
 nihilated the last one. They teemed once with 
 their natural inhabitants. Why cannot they 
 be made to do so again ? The evidence of our 
 own and other countries clearly prove they 
 can. 
 
 The decrease of fish is attributed to over- 
 fishing and unseasonable fishing, which is 
 true; but these are the ordinary concomitants 
 of advancing civilization and increasing popu- 
 lation, and only admonish us that man must 
 use his mind to increase the supply. It has 
 been alleged that the food had diminished 
 even in the sea; and here again I cannot 
 do better than quote from the report before 
 alluded to of the New York commissioners: 
 
 "A familiar explanation of the decreasp of fish, 
 given by all those who are interested in keeping up 
 the present unwise mode of destruction of the fish- 
 eries, is that their food has disappeared. It was 
 ■essential in the first place to ascertain whether tiiis 
 was true; and to determine the question dredges 
 •were drawn over the mussel beds, and the water in 
 various parts of the bays and ocean was examined, 
 to see if it contained much animal life. These exam- 
 inations demonstrated that instead of any decrease 
 in the supply of food, it must absolutely have in- 
 creased from reduced consumption and the destruc- 
 tion of its natural enemies ; the bivalves, crustacears, 
 and all manner of similar creatures were abundant 
 on the bottom, while the water was literally alive 
 with animal matter, with polyps, infusoria, jelly- 
 fish, &c. A bucketful taken from it anywhere was 
 simply full of such animalcula. Here was one point 
 
 settled conclusively; true that the menhaden had 
 been used for their oil to an extent that had made 
 them scarce, and their disappearance had injured 
 the more ravenous varieties of fish, but the bottom- 
 feeders and the slow swimmers had around them 
 more food than they could possibly consume." 
 
 The truth is the food is too abundant, for 
 these creatures often prey on one another, 
 the smaller varieties devouring the egii;s and 
 young of the larger, a,nd becoming, in their 
 turn, a prey to those of maturer growth. 
 And here is the true explanation of the rapid 
 extinction of fisheries when they become 
 depleted beyond a certain limit. Nature bal- 
 anced the number of each kind, providing 
 that mutual destruction of one another should 
 keep all in check. Man destroys this equi- 
 poise by killing those only that he can use. 
 The rest then augment at an increased ratio, 
 the enemies of all sorts of the edible kinds 
 h^ave no check, they multiply, and multiply 
 until they obtain the mastery, and then quickly 
 comes the end when the better sorts are exti-rm- 
 inated. This is apparent, but is sustained 
 by the fact that new varieties when introduced 
 into unaccustomed waters increase for the 
 first few years with inordinate I'apidity. For 
 a time their natural foes do not exist in suf- 
 ficient numbers to curtail this growth, but as 
 the latter develop the counterbalance is re- 
 stored and the stimulated activity of reproduc- 
 tion ceases. 
 
 The time may come in the distant future 
 when the edible fishes shall be made so abun- 
 dant by artificial cultivation that the food of 
 the piscivorous sorts may fail ; then it may be 
 pecessary to breed those which live on water- 
 grasses and vegetables to supply the others 
 with sustenance. At present, however, there 
 is no such necessity ; not only is the sea alive 
 with food, but the large lakes are equally well 
 peopled. It is a curious fact that in Lakes 
 Huron and Superior is found the salt water 
 shrimp in the deeper parts, and in quantities 
 equal to that in the ocean. This shrimp, which 
 itself is exceedingly prolific, is the principal 
 food of the true salmon, the salmo salar, and 
 is supposed to constitute the red color of the 
 flesh. But if it were requisite the cyprinidae 
 could be cultivated or introduced, orsotne other 
 variety which lives solely on a vegetable diet, 
 but which of themselves are not good for food. 
 
13 
 
 This will doubtless be done as soon as it is 
 needed, and has already been successfully tried 
 in Europe, so that should the present supply of 
 fivsh food give out it could be replenished. 
 
 The fisheries of our coasts are among the 
 most valuable commercial interests of our 
 country. Millions of money are invested and 
 hundreds of thousands of men are employed, 
 while the food thus obtained is a large per- 
 centage of the total supply of the eastern mar- 
 kets. Not only is the profit of this business a 
 matter of general advantage, but the residents 
 along the eastern bays and lagoons and upon 
 the larger rivers derive their principal means 
 of sustenance directly from these waters, and 
 in all these disiricts far more families are sup- 
 ported by the water than by the land. In the 
 West there is nothing of this sort. The mar- 
 kets are almost bare of fish; a few catfish, 
 euckers, and pickerel constitute the wretched 
 and meager bill of fare they offer. The muddy 
 Mississippi contains little or nothing. The 
 beautiful Ohio has but one or two sorts of 
 pike-perch, which the inhabitants flatteringly 
 call salmon, while catfish hide in most of the 
 d iscolored streams of our continent and suckers 
 explore the bottom for their food. 
 
 If anything can be done to improve this 
 state of affairs, to make fish and fishermen as 
 abuiidui-.t in the West as they are in New 
 . England, and to develop the same activity in 
 \this matter that exists in the East, it is well 
 yorth the serious consideration of 'he Gov- 
 ertiment. By this means a new industry, an 
 ackiiiional source of income, an entirely dif- 
 ferent species of food would be introduced, 
 atid an immense increase added to the wealth 
 of the whole region of country. There is no 
 reason why the waters of the West should be 
 less prolific than those of the East, provided 
 the right species were introduced ; and were 
 trout, salmon, bass, shad, and sturgeon to 
 take the place of catfish, pickerel, and suck- 
 ers, the gain would be manifest. 
 
 It seems to me clearly to be the duty of the 
 Government to assist in this very work of 
 introducing new varieties, as well as replenish- 
 ing the old where they have been reduced. 
 No private person can own a shad which is 
 here to-day and in mid-ocelan to-morrow, 
 nor is a single resident on a river's bank suf- 
 
 ficiently interested to incur the expense of 
 importing fish for the benefit of his neighbors. 
 This is the nation's duty or it is nobody's. 
 The mighty rivers of the southern and western 
 States, which now produce generally only the 
 poorer sorts, could readily be stocked with the 
 most palatable and prolific sorts. The shad 
 has already been acclimatized in some of the 
 Alabama rivers, where it never before was 
 known, and the Potomac has been filled with 
 black bass almost to repletion ; but that was 
 the unaided effort of individuals as , a mere 
 matter of experimental curiosity. Other riv- 
 ers remain still unimproved, and several foreign 
 species of fish should be introduced. For 
 instance, the magnificent Danube salmon,, 
 which attains a weight of a hundred pounds, 
 might be acclimatized in the Ohio and the 
 upper Mississippi, while the true salmon might i 
 be brought to the Delaware and Susquehanna. ,/ 
 This is perfectly simple and easy. Salmon 
 have been transported while in the embryo 
 state from England to Australia, half way 
 round the globe; our white-fish, trout, and 
 salmon-trout have been sent to England, and 
 living shad were actually transported from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific, offering the possibility 
 of supplying that entire coast and ocean with 
 a new fish. This latter was a remarkable feat ; 
 but trout spavu n.re sent from one ond of our 
 country to the other with as little trouble or 
 danger as letters, and are delivered by express 
 precisely as any other packages. The slow- 
 hatching fish are the more easily handled in 
 this particular, as the eggs develop slowly and 
 will live perfectly well packed in damp moss, 
 but other kinds only require care and ex- 
 perience. 
 
 The cost of this undertaking is insignifi- 
 cantly moderate. A salmon-hatching house 
 can be built for $1,000 while the neces- 
 sary implements fur shad raising are too in- 
 expensive to be worth mentioning. Some 
 labor must be employed, but it is mostly un- 
 skilled and cheap, while the outlay for trans- 
 portation is simply the mere charge of express 
 or traveling fare. The people of this country 
 would not grudge this were it a hundred times 
 as great with the certain prospect of develop- 
 ing a new food resource and of diminishing 
 the price of living to the poor. 
 
14 
 
 The importance of this matter can hardly be 
 ^erestimated. We raise animals for man's 
 ie, cross their breeds, study their food, and 
 y and adapt their surroundings to their great- 
 it development. We cultivate plants and 
 ^getables, and strive to obtain new species 
 id improved varieties. We import cattle 
 ora Europe, horses from Africa, sheep from 
 pain, wheat from Egypt, sorghum from Asia, 
 ur daily struggle is to make the most of what- 
 rer can be turned to the support of the human 
 \.ce, except with one great class which has 
 ways contributed, and, unless exterminated, 
 ways will contribute largely to that end. 
 ''ho would have thought twenty years ago 
 lat a despised "love apple" could ever be 
 )nverted into the useful tomato 1 And in 
 irlier days who would have expected the 
 lange from the poisonous wild potato into 
 16 succulent root which now supports a na- 
 on and adds to the comfort of every human 
 eing? 
 
 What was done with the common tomatoes, 
 potatoes, onions, and hundreds of other vege- 
 table productions, which, as wild, were worth- 
 less, may in a higher degree be carried into 
 effect with fish. Wild rice scarcely produces 
 enough seed to continue the supply ; but pro- 
 tected, developed, encouraged, it feeds a tenth 
 part of the world. Fish neglected, destroyed, 
 poached and wasted, can soon be annihilated. 
 Their reproductive power can only maintain a 
 certain equilibrium ; incline that toward de- 
 struction, and the entire class will quickly dis- 
 appear. Treat them like wild animals, and 
 they will inevitably be exterminated ; domes- 
 ticate them, as it were, encourage their growth 
 by putting them under heathful influences, pro- 
 tect them from unseasonable disturbance, let 
 them breed in peace, guard the young from 
 injury, assist them by artificial aid, select the 
 best varieties for appropriate waters, and we 
 will soon augment the supply as greatly as we 
 do with either land animals or vegetables. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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