104 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iDg its quota for local use. Not only did this method of reacliiug the 

 consnmers have many advantages over the present, but it also gave 

 opportunity for a large percentage of the shad to spawn in suitable 

 places jind thus keep i\p the supply. There was no concentration at 

 any particular point, and the limited local demand did not warrant 

 the prosecution of the fisheries so vigorously as to cut off' the run at 

 points above. 



Dams were gradually constructed along the streams, completely 

 blocking the passage to the spawning-grounds in the upper reaches. 

 Then the concentration of the fisheries near the mouths of the rivers 

 resulted, in certain narrow streams, in excluding shad almost entirely 

 from the middle and upper parts, restricting or entirely preventing the 

 reproduction of the species in those rivers. The excessive fisheries 

 and the destruction of spawn by sewage and by washings from culti- 

 vated fields, and of young shad by improper modes of capture, make 

 heavy drains upon the natural abundance of these fish. In a number 

 of streams on the Atlantic seaboard the fisheries have been entirely 

 destroyed by these combined agencies, and in most of the others the 

 number of shad that reach the spawning areas has been so far reduced 

 that natural reproduction is yearly becoming less effective in keeping 

 up the supply, and the necessity for artificial hatching becomes propor- 

 tionately greater. 



The history of the shad fisheries shows that there was a decrease in 

 the yield in nearly every river on the coast until 1880, when the results 

 of artificial propagation became apparent, not only maintaining an 

 equilibrium, but increasing the abundance. Since 1880 the aggregate 

 yield has greatly increased, the i^roduct in 189G being 28 per cent 

 greater than in 1888 and nearly three times as great as in 1880. And 

 yet 1896 was what is commonly termed an "off" year for shad, the 

 catch being smaller than in 1895 or in 1897. It should be noted, how- 

 ever, that this largely increased yield has been accompanied and even 

 surpassed by an increase in quantity and effectiveness of the apparatus 

 of capture, but it was made possible by the results of artificial propa- 

 gation. Comparing 1880 with 1896, it is observed that the increase in 

 the yield numbered 7,905,154. At 25 cents each, the average price 

 l^aid by consumers, this represents an increase of $1,976,288 in the value, 

 over 60 times the expenditure for shad propagation, a result probably 

 uusuri^assed in any other line of fish culture. 



The supporting of profitable shad fisheries is not the only object to 

 be gained in maintaining the supply of shad on the coast. The rela- 

 tion between the different species of fish in the economy of nature is 

 not very well understood, but sufficient is known to indicate that the 

 valuable shore fisheries on the New England coast are intimately asso- 

 ciated with the run of shad and similar species up the rivers of that 

 section. Seventy years ago the run of fish up the rivers of the New 

 England States was very much greater than at present, and after the 

 parent fish had disappeared the waters swarmed with the young, which 



