390 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



PROTECTION AND CULTIVATION OP FISH. 



As in the oilier States bordering the Gnlf of Mexico, little attention 

 has been <iiven to the cultivation and preservation ofhsh in Texas, and 

 this special branch of le^iislation seems to have been quite ignored in 

 the State until 1871), On April 17 of tliat year a bill was enacted ^' for 

 the preservation offish and to build lishways and lish-ladders." This 

 act required that all persons who six months after its passage might 

 erect any milldams or other obstructions in the waters of the State 

 should construct fish-ladders and keep them in repair so that at all 

 seasons of the year the fish might ascend above such obstructions to 

 deposit their spawn. Further ])rovisi(m was made in this act for the 

 appointment by the governor of a fish commissioner to serve without 

 compensation, who should see that all individuals and corporations 

 constructed and kept in repair such suitable fishways. As no ajipro- 

 priation went with this enactment, either to encourage fish-culture or 

 to compensate the commissioner, little benefit could be expected. 



During the next session of the legislature, which occurred in 1881, 

 another enactment was made providing a salary for the commissioner 

 and appropriating $5,000 annually for the following two years, to be 

 exi)ended in the cultivation and distribution of fish in the rivers and 

 ponds of the State. The amount approi)riated for this purpose for the 

 two years following the session of the legislature in 1883 was $10,400. 



By act of March 20, 1885, the office of State fish commissioner was 

 abolished, and an appropriation was made during the same session for 

 winding up the affairs of his office. Since that time the State govern- 

 ment has made no si)ecial effort to stock the waters with fish. 



Shortly prior to and during the few years following the enactment of 

 1881 numbers of young shad, salmon, rainbow trout, carp, etc., were 

 plante<l, chiefly for experimental iDurposes, in Texas waters by the 

 IJ. S. Fish Commission. The shad were placed mostly in the Sabine, Col- 

 orado, Brazos, San Antonio, and Trinity rivers. But few instances have 

 been rei)orted of the return of any of the shad here planted. The few 

 ('alifornia salmon deposited seem to have entirely disappeared. The 

 raiid)ow trout are reported as having done Avell. The carp-i)lanting has 

 been a (•(»m])]ete success; the rivers, being mainly sluggish and muddy, 

 seem to be fully adapted to this fish. 



In the spring of 1800, 745 lobsters, from 7 to 10 inches long, were sent 

 to (Jalveston by the U. S. Fish Commission to be planted in tjji' (^lulf 

 near that city; while it is reported that two or three of these have since 

 been obtained, the exjyerinKMit can not be considered a success. 



The sfocking of the streams in Texas with fish is a subject of much 

 im])ortanee, of which fad the (Jeneral Covernmenthas recently shown 

 its ai)])reciation by ])roviding for the establishment of a hatchery in the 

 interior of the State. With much of her territory far removed from 

 salt water, and WM'th a length of river course ])r()bably greater tlian 

 that of any other State in the Union, superior inducements are offered 

 foi- the cultivation of fresh-water fish. 



