272 AGEICULTURAL KErORT. 



supply continue with regularity and certainty, tliere will be no difficulty 

 in disposing of the catch — no more than there used to be twenty or 

 thirty years ago with a very much smaller population. 



Then, again, twenty years ago, salt shad were just as much an article 

 of commerce as salted mackerel are now. In this day no one ever hears 

 of salt shad, and all along the Hudson, Potomac, Chesapeake, and 

 Connecticut stand the ruins of salting establishments. 



In the month of June three tents may be seen standing on the west 

 bank of the Hudson, about nine miles below Albany. In these tents 

 live the men engaged in the shad-hatching. About dusk they go down 

 to the fishery, taking with them the necessary pans, &c. Some of the 

 fishermen are engaged to haul a seine every night during the season. 

 As soon as the men arrive, the fishermen make the first haul, generally 

 about 8 p. m. A boat is stationed at the place to which the net is to be 

 drawn, and the fish are handed from the bag of the net to the men in 

 the boat, and the eggs at once taken. As soon as the fish are all han- 

 dled, another haul is made, and the fishing is continued until about 

 12 p. m., the largest hauls being those first taken. The eggs are taken 

 in tin i^ans, about twenty thousand in each pan. When first taken 

 they are about nine-hundredths of an inch in diameter, but in a short 

 time (twenty minutes or less) swell to thirteen-hundredths of an inch ; 

 at the same time the temperature of the water in the pan is found 

 to have lowered 10c>. After impregnation the eggs are thoroughly 

 washed, and are then ready to be put in the hatching-boxes. This is 

 done immediately after the hauling is over, at 12 p. m. 



The hatching-boxes now in use are made of pine sides, fifteen inches 

 wide, twenty-one inches long, and ten inches high. The bottom is cov- 

 ered with wire-cloth of eighteen meshes to the inch. The floats now 

 used are no longer than the box, and are put on at an angle of one inch 

 in four. The wire-cloth is dipped in hot gas-tar to prevent rust, and the 

 sides are also coated with the same material. The reason why tar is 

 used in x^reference to paint, is because paint kills the fish and tar does 

 not. The boxes are tied together in gangs of sis, each box being turned 

 broadside to the current, and anchored out so that they will swing with 

 the tide. As the tide turns twice each day, there is a period of about 

 two hours at slack water when the current is not sufficient to straighten 

 out the strings, and it is the duty of one man to attend at such times, 

 and at intervals move the strings of boxes, and thus give the eggs a 

 change of water. The boxes containing fish ready to put into the river 

 are marked in the day-time, and at night, when the newly taken eggs 

 are placed in boxes, the fish are emptied out. There in no use in towing 

 them out to the middle of the river before setting them free, as they 

 will find their own way to deep water before the morning light brings 

 danger. Every day the boxes are examined and thoroughly cleaned ; 

 this is a work of some delicacy when they are full of eggs. About two 

 hundred boxes are used, (costing 25 cents each,) hatching about ten 

 thousand eggs at once. 



Some experiments have also been tried in transporting and trans- 

 planting shad. As the eggs hatch so quickly they can be carried only 

 to short distances, but the young fish can be carried and kept alive for 

 a long time. About fifteen thousand fry in 1S71 and sixty thousand in 

 1S72 were put into the Genesee Eiver, below the falls. All shad, so far 

 as known, migrate to salt-water; and the New York commissioners de- 

 sired to make this experiment in order to see if a migration to the lakes 

 would sntisfy the shad, and be sufficient for their growtli. It is not 



