EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXVll 



Owing to the earlier date at which the necessary appropriations were 

 made by Congress for the propagation of food-fishes, especiallj^ of the 

 shad, in 1873, I was enabled to take timely steps looking toward this 

 great interest, the plan adopted being to hatch out the fish in the rivers 

 of the Atlantic coast, and to transfer a suitable portion of them to 

 western waters, beginning in the south, and conducting operations 

 farther and farther toward the north as the season advanced. 



Entirely ignorant of the best points where this work could be carried 

 on, I dispatched Dr. Yarrow on a tour of reconnaissance, and was 

 very much surprised to learn from his report (page 39(3) that, in conse- 

 quence of the scarcity of fish, it would be extremely difiicult to get 

 enough to experiment upon, farther south than the Neuse. This con- 

 clusion was found to be correct, by the subsequent experience of the par- 

 ties entering upon the work. 



Desirous of utilizing the practical experience in shad-culture of Mr. 

 Seth Green, I made arrangements with him to devote his whole atten- 

 tion to the business of hatching shad in behalf of the United States, or 

 at least until it became necessary for him to commence operations on 

 the Hudson River for the State of Xew York. He accordingly reported 

 himself in Washington on the 17th of April, with his trained assistants, 

 Mr. H. M. Welsher, Mr. Jonathan Mason, Mr. M. G. Holton, and Mr. 

 Chester K. Green. As agreed upon, he proceeded first to the Savannah 

 Eiver at Augusta, Ga., but, to his disappointment and my own, was 

 unable, as already explained, to find enough spawning shad to make the 

 experiment worth the cost. 



i^ew Berne on the Neuse, and Weldon on the Roanoke were next fixed 

 upon as stations. Unfortunately the unprecedented rise in the rivers 

 prevented anything like the success we had hoped for; the streams 

 being many feet above high- water mark, rendering it impossible either to 

 catch the shad, or to hatch out the spawn properly had it been possible 

 to procure it. The most important result of the experiment at Weldon 

 was the discovery by Mr. Holton that the striped bass or rock-fish 

 could be propagated in the same manner as the shad. Several spawn- 

 ing fish w'ere stripped of their eggs, which were fertilized and placed in 

 the shad-boxes. Thej' were found to develop in rather less time than 

 the shad, and to be capable of quite a similar treatment generally. 



As this fisli has diminished equally with the shad, and is much more 

 valuable on account of its greatly superior size, we have here the war- 

 rant as to further operations, which it is proposed to carry into eifect 

 hereafter. 



The operations at Weldon were under the charge of Mr. M. G. Holton 

 and Mr. C. K. Green ; and on the 17th of May a camp was established on 

 the Potomac River by Messrs. Mason and Welsher, and the first work of 

 any magnitude commenced. About one hundred hatching-boxes were 

 prepared according to Mr. Green's pattern, and anchored above the 

 western end of the Long Bridge opposite Washington, and advantage 



