19.— OPENING REMARKS OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE FISH-CULTURAL 

 SECTION OF THE FISHERIES CONGRESS. 



BY EUGENE G. BLACKFORD. 



There is very little that I can say on the subject of flsh-cnltnre that the gen- 

 tlemen here are not already familiar with. I have not prepared any paper from 

 lack of time. I can say from practical experience, and from my own observation, 

 that we, the citizens of the United States, have good reason to be proud of the posi- 

 tion that we hold to-day in the science of fish-culture. We have been honored by the 

 different governments of the world in their sending embassadors and commissioners 

 here to study our methods, that they might carry out the same system and plans for 

 the increase of fish food in their own countries. 



In the early history of fish-culture, and up to within twenty years, nearly all of the 

 efforts have been bestowed on theartificial propagation of brook trout. Trout-hatching 

 was the commencement of fish-culture, so to speak. After that had been started in 

 this country by Dr. Garlick, followed by Mr. Ainsworth and Seth Green, attention 

 was directed to the artificial propagation of other varieties of fish, and through the 

 efforts of the American Fishery Society public interest has been stimulated and the 

 fields broadened, so that what was in its first organization a " trout-culturist exchange" 

 became the American Fish-Culturists' Association, and that expanded once more so as 

 to take cognizance of everything in connection with the fisheries. That organization 

 now stands under the title of the American Fisheries Society. 



What I particularly desire to call your attention to are certain indisputable suc- 

 cesses in the art of fish-culture — notably, the planting of young shad in the waters of 

 the Sacramento, through the efforts of the U. S. Fish Commission, from which the 

 waters of the entire Pacific coast are now abundantly stocked with this choice fish. 

 A little over a year ago, while visiting the markets at San Francisco, I found shad 

 there so abundant that they sold for 5 cents each. Many of these shad weighed as 

 much as 12 pounds each. One of the marketmen told me that they had had several 

 specimens during the season that weighed 15 pounds each. This, as you are aware, 

 is a remarkable growth. I also saw striped bass weighing from 10 to 15 pounds each 

 that had been caught in those waters. These fish a few years ago, and until the waters 

 had been stocked by the U. S. Fish Commission, were not known in that region. 

 Another item of interest in this connection is that the shad have gradually spread 

 out, so that they are found on that coast as far north as the Columbia Eiver. 



These facts prove that fish-culture is an absolute and exact science, from which 

 undoubted results can always be counted on, if it is carried out intelligently. 



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