PisciccLTUiJt: WITH Refeuknce to Fauming. 403 



has recently been decided by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, wliich establishes a principle, as it seems to 

 me, which has interest for Vermont farmers, and also genu- 

 ine sportsmen everywhere. A few years ago the Legisla- 

 ture of Massachusetts passed an act providing that a fish- 

 way should be built across or around the dam over the Con- 

 necticut River at Ilolj^oke, and appropriated a part of the 

 amount necessary to complete the work. The owners of 

 this property refused to obey the law, and contested its con- 

 stitutionality before the Courts. Beaten before the State 

 Courts, they appealed to the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, which has sustained the State Courts, and rendered 

 a decision sustaining the constitutionality of the act, and 

 thus the right of State Legislatures generally to pass simi- 

 lar enactments. Now it seems to me that this decision is of 

 immense importance to the people of Vermont, if they 

 would only use it as they might. I)oes it not in effect estab- 

 lish the principle that every farn^er who has upon his prem- 

 ises water running to the sea, has the right to have that 

 water flow in an unobstructed course, so that whatever of 

 migratory fishes he sees fit to cultivate in his private ponds, 

 may follow out the instincts of their nature and return from 

 the sea to their native spawn beds i This decision, however, 

 will not be likely to prove of much advantage to us unless 

 we make laws for the construction of other fish-ways. But 

 public opinion makes law, and public opinion in Vermont 

 does not yet demand that a fish-way shall be constructed 

 over every mill-dam in the State. Whether or not the inter- 

 est of Vermont farmers demands this legislation we will not 

 stop to discuss. Certain it is that if their interest does 



