PROCEEDINGS. LV 



impurities removed, and tlien the success of fish-culture would be 

 beyond a doubt, as had already been proved by the results accom- 

 plished with the California salmon, and the shad on the Pacific 

 coast. 



Mr. Earll thought that many enthusiastic fish-culturists .had 

 claimed more for the science than could be hoped in the limited 

 lime during which it had been carried on, but, on the otlier hand, 

 he thought tliat the author of the paper under consideration had 

 gone to the other extreme. Such broad and far-reaching conclu- 

 sions as had been stated in the paper should be based upon the 

 fullest and most reliable information, extending over a number of 

 years. The statistics on which these conclusions were based were, 

 in his opinion, not of this character. The receipts of fish at the 

 Washington market were not reliable as indicating the catch in the 

 Potomac river, and much less so for the entire Chesapeake basin, 

 which certainly must be taken as a whole when the question of the 

 increase or decrease of the shad is to be considered. The fisheries 

 of this river system had undergone radical changes within the last 

 few years. At one time the fisheries were confined chiefly to the 

 Potomac and Susquehanna, and Washington received a large part 

 of the catch, while now, owing to an enormous development of the 

 fishery interests in the lower Chesapeake, ^Yhich must necessarily 

 interfere with the catch in those rivers, Norfolk had become an im- 

 portant fishery center, and was receiving immense numbers of shad 

 and other species annually for distribution through the South and 

 West. The introduction of new methods of refrigeration had also 

 enabled the fishermen to send their catch direct to the larger mar- 

 kets without the aid of the Washington dealers. 



He did not know the source of Mr. Smiley's statistics of the 

 Sacramento river catch, and was not disposed to question their 

 accuracy, but a recent interview with Mr. A. Booth, the greatest 

 salmon canner of the Pacific coast, had given him quite a different 

 impression. Mr. Booth had assured him that the catch in the Sac- 

 ramento had been almost miraculously increased, owing to the work 

 of the U. S. Fish Commission, within the last few years. When the 

 Fish Commission began work on that river the catch was almost 

 wholly utilized fresh in the San Francisco and Sacramento markets, 

 and a cannery, built by Mr. Booth at that time, had to be closed 

 after one year for want of a supply. In 18S2, fifteen large canneries 



