228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to six pounds, and be as beautiful fish as ever gladdened the heart 

 of sportsman or stomach of epicure. After spawning they will 

 again go to the sea and once more return the ensuing year the 

 magnificent salmon of from six^to twelve pounds, and thereafter 

 gain every season nearly half a dozen pounds till they come to 

 kick the beam at seventy or eighty, having attained an age that is 

 a mere matter of conjecture. 



Salmon invariably return to the river where they were bred. 

 This has has been conclusively proved by many interesting experi- 

 ments, one alone of which need be mentioned. The second back 

 fin, the small adipose dorsal, as it is termed, has been cut off 

 before they were allowed to descend the river, and while they 

 were shut up in some fresh water pond. Grilse and salmon were 

 afterward taken in the same stream without this fin. This habit 

 seems to rule with all fish of an anadromous disposition, and 

 although there was doubt whether it held good with shad, that 

 doubt has been removed, and it is now established that not only 

 will these return to the place where they first saw life, but to the 

 particular spot, rarely stopping short, or ascending higher, even, 

 than that locality. 



It is perfectly apparent, from this short explanation, that the 

 ova incur innumerable risks and are far more than decimated 

 before they hatch. The only wonder is that any live, and it has 

 been estimated that not one in five hundred comes to maturity. 

 With this explanation it ceases to be a matter of surprise that 

 nature has given this class of creatures such wonderful recupera- 

 tive power ; were it otherwise the race would die out in the face 

 of so many difficulties and enemies. But at the same time the 

 slightest thought will show how enormously this fecundity can be 

 made to work in the interest of man, and what a I'eady means is 

 here offered for the increase of food for the human race. Care 

 can remove these dangers and drive away or exterminate these 

 enemies, and turn this fertility to full advantage ; and the method 

 of doing so I will proceed briefly to explain. 



The salmon, when they ascend the river to spawn, are shut in 

 some suitable part of the water, being either inveigled there as a 

 favorable spawning-ground or caught in nets and forcibly put 

 there ; and when they are fully ready, when they are ripe, as it is 

 termed ; that is, when the eggs lie perfectly loose and free in the 

 stomach, they are taken from the water, held over a tin pan, and 

 forced to extrude the spawn and milt by gentle pressure on their 



