442 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



take charge of the artificial propagation of fish, and to report 

 the result of their labors to the Legislature. A suitable lo- 

 cation is to be selected for a state fish-breeding establishment, 

 and for which the appointment of a superintendent, at a salary 

 of $1200 a year, is authorized. An api>ropriation of $7500 is 

 made for the year 1873, and a similar sum for the year 1874. 

 The Commissioners are to receive the amount of actual ex- 

 penses incurred while in the discharge of their duty, but no 

 salary. 



Wisconsin had previously made an appropriation of $500 

 for the same purpose, its expenditure to be under the direction 

 of Professor Baird, United States Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries. So far, Indiana and Illinois are the only Lake 

 States that have not recognized this interest, and initiated 

 steps for its promotion. Pennsylvania has just made a lib- 

 eral appropriation for the purpose, and it is hoped that New 

 York will not hesitate to continue to furnish the necessary 

 appropriations. At present the entire series of New England 

 and Middle States, with the exception of Delaware, have taken 

 action in the same direction. Nothing has been done by Ma- 

 ryland and Virginia, nor any of the more Southern or West- 

 ern States except Alabama. California, it is well known, has 

 a very efficient board. 



HYBEIDS OF SALMON AND TROUT. 



The attention of fish-culturists in Europe has lately been 

 directed very extensively to the subject of raising hybrids 

 between the difierent kinds of Salmo7iidcB, the favorite being 

 a cross between the true salmon and the common trout. A 

 large percentage of these hybrid eggs hatch out and develop 

 into fish, which rapidly attain a large size and jDOSsess re- 

 markable excellence of flesh. They have the very desirable 

 characteristic of not wandering ofi* to sea, but of remaining 

 in the rivers during their lifetime, and of being in season 

 throughout the year. What is most remarkable in this case 

 is the fact that a number of them are actually fertile and ca- 

 pable of reproducing their kind ; but the expense and trouble 

 of obtaining a stock of hybrid eggs from parents of the two 

 species is so trifling that direct crossing is generally resort- 

 ed to. 



We are not aware that the experiment of hybridizing Sal- 



