MANUAL OF FISH-CULTURE. 139 



The "Seth Green box," a modificatiou of the floating'-box used for 

 hatchiug trout aud salmon eggs, was first tried with great success, but 

 floating-boxes were subject to various accidents when used in tidal 

 waters, and in rapid succession'devices of various kinds were brought 

 forward to supplant them. The most important were hatching-cones 

 and the plunger-buckets, which, though imperfect, rendered larger 

 operations possible. At this period the apparatus was arranged on 

 flat-bottomed barges aud towed from point to point along the coast from 

 Albemarle Sound to the Susquehanna liiver, a slow and expensive 

 method. The Chase whitetish jar worked with considerable efiflciency, 

 but required modifications, and finally the " universal" hatching* jar now 

 in use was adoj^ted in 1882. 



During- the years of experimental work from 1872 to 1880, 97,471,700 

 shad fry were planted, beginning with 859,000 in 1872, while in 1880, 

 28,626,000 were distribnted. Prior to 1880 deposits of a few hundred 

 thousand each were made in as many diflerent streams as possible, but 

 the increased production of young fish made it possible to ship and 

 plant the fry by the carload, and by 1881 shad-culture was established 

 on a large scale, barge operations were abandoned, and the work 

 conducted on shore. The basins of the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware 

 River liad meanwhile been selected by the United States Commission 

 as the natural seat of operations, though the State commissions from 

 Massachusetts to South Carolina were actively engaged on their own 

 account. At present the States, except Connecticut, New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Maryland, have practically abandoned shad-hatching, 

 leaving the work to the general government. 



EGG-GROUNDS. 



Every river on the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts southward has 

 been examined by the agents of some State commission or the United 

 States, or by both, in order to determine the natural spawning-grounds 

 of the shad. On nearly every stream hatcheries have been operated 

 at one time or another, but usually eggs were not obtained in sufficient 

 numbers to justify continued operations, except in the Chesapeake and 

 ] )elaware basins. However, it is not unlikely that after further investi 

 gation it will be found practicable to maintain hatcheries on rivers 

 whicli have long since been abandoned. It is certain that work on the 

 Albemarle Sound can be successfully conducted, and though operations 

 on the Hudson River have not been on a large scale, better results may 

 be there obtained in tlie future. 



In certain river stretches, apparently favorable, no ripe fish are found ; 

 for example, in the Roanoke River for 15 miles above its mouth, where 

 10,000 to 15,000 shad are taken annually, mature eggs can not be found, 

 though the fish spawn just below there, as they do many miles above at 

 Weldon. In the Sutton Beach seine, the one in North Carolina waters 

 which has afforded the most spawn, only about one spawning shad to 

 each 100 is caught, and the annual catch of this seine is 30,000 to 75,000 

 per annum. In view of such facts, it is not remarkable that dififlculty 



