396 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, 



Hudson River ; and the yield of mature shad shows a fair in- 

 crease in the number, and a very decided efl'ect upon the 

 price, large fish being readily procured in New York and in 

 the towns of tlie state for twenty to twenty-five cents each 

 a rate which had not been known for twenty years pre- 

 vious. 



The Commissioners continue their complaints of the viola- 

 tion of the law by fishermen, and state that the yield would 

 otherwise have been very much greater. They urge that no 

 fishing shall be done from Saturday night until Monday 

 morning, and that the raising of all nets fastened to stakes 

 be insisted upon during that period. 



In reference to shad deposited in the tributaries of Lake 

 Ontario, they remark that full-grown fish of marketable size 

 have frequently been taken, and that in all probability tlie 

 supply w^ould be abundant but for the destruction wrought 

 by the eel-weirs, which they consider among the most inju- 

 rious agencies in interfering with the successful prosecution of 

 the w^ork. Indeed, according to the report, the shad artificially 

 introduced into Lake Ontario have multiplied until now they 

 amount to millions, and the fishermen think that if they con- 

 tinue to increase as they have done, the fish will be so abun- 

 dant as not to repay them for their labor. 



The Commissioners report that 304,000 California salmon, 

 received from the United States Fish Commission, have been 

 distributed during the year. They also detail the result of 

 experiments in regard to the artificial hatching of sturgeon, 

 which were successfully made by Mr. Seth Green. The eggs 

 are sticky, as in the perch, and required some peculiar ma- 

 nipulation for their treatment, and a special apparatus was de- 

 vised for the purpose, which it is thought will accomplish the 

 object. The time of growth proved to be a hundred hours, 

 in water at a temperature of from 67 to 74. 



The Commissioners continue to call attention to the de- 

 structive influences of fish-weirs and other agencies, and in- 

 voke legislation for their regulation, if not for their entire 

 prohibition. 



The report contains the statistics of the hatching of shad, 

 as also the distribution of fish from the state hatching-house, 

 and concludes with a general summary of the history offish- 

 cultural operations in other states. 



