INSHORE FISHERIES 219 



In 1870 shad appeared in unusual abundance, there be- 

 ing more than for twenty years past. The fishing con- 

 tinued uncommonly good throughout the season. Fifty- 

 four million shad fry were hatched and turned into the 

 river at Holyoke that season. The next year, also, shad 

 were in abundance, and 65,000,000 shad fry were turned 

 into the river at Holyoke, and in 1872 nearly 90,000,000 

 more. 



In 1874 the United States Commissioner co-operated in 

 hatching 44,000,000 shad fry. The four states in co-opera- 

 tion planted over one million salmon fry. The following 

 year 460,000 salmon fry were planted. From 1867 to 1874 

 the operations of Seth Green were conducted jointly by 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut. 



From 1875 to 1884 only 12,000,000 shad fry were planted 

 in the river by Connecticut. The artificial propagation of 

 shad on the Housatonic, at Birmingham, was begun in 1884, 

 and the place was operated until 1898, hatching out over 

 75,000,000 shad fry during that period. About that time 

 the run of shad ceased on the Housatonic and the artificial 

 propagation of shad fry was discontinued on the part of 

 the State until 1904. In the meantime the whole supply 

 was obtained from the United States Government. The 

 Connecticut Commission established a hatchery on the 

 Farmington River in 1904, which has been conducted with 

 satisfactory results. It has been the belief of the Fish Com- 

 mision of the State for years that unless natural reproduc- 

 tion be aided by artificial propagation it is a matter of a 

 few years only before the shad will be exterminated. 1 



THE ALEWIFE. 



Alewives, or river herring, are the most abundant river 

 food-fish frequenting the rivers of the Atlantic coast of 



i Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries and Game, Conn., 1906. 



