THE OYSTER. l8l 



and 1890 has been much greater than it was in any of 

 the years given in the table, and this' result is not due 

 to any change in the method of fishing. It is exclu- 

 sively due to the increase in the supply. 



The conditions are now more unfavorable than ever 

 to natural reproduction, and it can be proved that if 

 no shad had been produced by man, while the other 

 factors had remained as they now are, the fisheries 

 would be completely ruined and abandoned. 



The mature fishes are now excluded by dams and 

 other obstructions from the most valuable spawning 

 grounds, and the area which is now available is re- 

 stricted to the lower reaches of the rivers, where there 

 is little proper food for the young, and where the bot- 

 toms are so continually and assiduously swept by drift 

 nets and seines that each fish is surely captured soon 

 after its arrival. The number of eggs which are 

 naturally deposited is now very small, for while the 

 spawning-grounds have increased from 1,600,000 to 

 2,600,000, the take in salt water has increased from 

 2,500,000 to 5,000,000, and the shores of our bays 

 and sounds are now so lined by fyke nets and pounds 

 that the number of shad which reach the spawning- 

 grounds at all is proportionately much less than it was 

 in 1880, and more shad are now taken each year in 

 salt water, where spawning is impossible, than were 

 taken altogether in 1880. 



This fact, rightly considered, means that the shad is 

 now an artificial product, like the crops of grain and 

 fruit which are harvested on our farms and orchards. 



If more shad than the natural supply were taken in 

 1880 in all waters, and if still greater numbers are now 



