270 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



nnknown causos, aud not arising from tlie artificial liatchinj?. But if 

 1871 sbovred an unusual yield, and an increase over the yield of 1870 

 proportioned to the increased hatching of 18G8, then there would bo no 

 reasonable doubt of the immense value of artificial hatching. The result 

 Avas tbat the catch of 1871 was better than the catch of 1870. Previous 

 to this date (1870) the largest catch ever known, or of which we have 

 any record, was made in the year 1802, and the catch of 1871 was GO per 

 cent, larger than the great catch of 1802. 



But we have still further conlirmation. In the year 1809 very little 

 attention was paid to hatching sbad on the Connecticut. Xothing was 

 done by the commissioners of tisheries, and only a few were hatched out 

 by an outsider. The catch of 1872 exactly corresponded to this record. 

 It was a tolerably foir year, but not to be compared with 1870 and 1871. 

 The great catch of 1870 again aroused public interest, and in the spring 

 of that year sixty millions of j'ouug sliad were hatched and put into the 

 river. It will not take very much of a prophet to predict that the ca,tch 

 of 1873 will be the largest ever known. 



When I first went to Holyoke in 1867 no shad was sold there for less 

 than 40 cents. The natives and fishermen did not think of eating them. 

 Perhaps they could afford the luxury of one shad in a year, so that they 

 might be able to say that they had tasted shad that season, Now, what 

 we want to do with shad is to take them out of the list of luxuries and 

 make them so cheap that the poorest man can have them on his tabLe. 

 It can be done ; the people have the power in their own hands, and I 

 hope to live until I see it accomplished. I believe that the number of 

 fish can be so increased that the run of shad will actually cause a rise 

 in the river. I believe that they can bo so increased as to allow any 

 man to fish for them at any time he pleases and in whatever way he 

 pleases. Personally, I would prefer a close time of twenty-four hours 

 on Sunday. But the number of fish can be made so great that a close 

 time will not be necessary. The rivers can be made absolutely full of 

 them. All the fish want is room enough to spawn, aud the nets will 

 make room enough for that purpose. 



In June, 18G8, 1 commenced hatching out shad on the Hudson Eivcr, 

 under the direction of the Kew York commissioners of fisheries. The 

 usual difficulties were again encountered. For the purposes of hatching 

 breeders have to be obtained at one of the fisheries. The best place I 

 found for this purpose was some three miles from a hotel. I tried to 

 obtain board at some of the houses near the place where I was working, 

 but the people looked upon me as a good-natured lunatic and closed, 

 their doors. I walked to a hotel several nights, and finally bought an 

 old canvass awning, made something like a tent of it, and "fought it 

 out on that line" for the rest of the summer. That year the spawners 

 were lew in number and the season was filled with various experiments 

 as to the best conditions of place and time, very few shad being put into 

 the river. The swell caused by passing steamboats and by heavy winds 

 was very fatal to the eggs, aud the hatching-boxes were therefore re- 

 moved behind an island, where they had a good current of water, but 

 yet were protected in great measure from the svrells of the immense 

 Hudson Eiver steamers aud from the waves in a hard blow. 



In order to show the state of the river at that time I quote from the 

 report of the New YorL: commissioners of fisheries, date March, 1869, 

 page 7 : 



* * *. * A tlioroiipli cxaniinatiou of (lie fisbcrics on the Hudson was 

 made. This was commenced on the 4tli of June, (18C8.) when the nets in the lower 

 liart of the river were being taken mj), as the main run had then passed. Great com- 



