274 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Messrs. Eeddiug and Smith, the California fishery commissioners. In 

 their presence I deposited the. fish in the Sacramento Eiver the same 

 night at 10 p. m. ; there were about ten thousand in good order. On the 

 sixth and seventh days out they began to be very busy looking for food. 

 Whenever I changed the water they would clean up all the food there 

 was in it in five minutes. They did not suffer for food as long as the sack 

 lasted on their bellies ; that is about five days ; then they needed sus- 

 tenance. If I could get a change of water often enough from running 

 streams I could carry them a long way, as nearly all streams are filled 

 with small insects. With this view I examined the Avater of the Sac- 

 ramento where I put them in, and found plenty of food for the young fry. 

 I then went down to the Pacific Ocean and found that there v/ere plenty 

 of sand-fleas, which are the principal food of the old shad in tlie Atlantic. 

 And now I can only say that if they do not have shad in the Pacific 

 Ocean there will be but one cause, the roily water, caused by washing 

 the mountains down for gold. Hov/ever, I think the fish will get through 

 all right. 



In closing this article I cannot do better than quote from a late speech 

 of the Hon. Eobert B. Eoosevelt in the House of Eepresehtatives : 



The relative fertility of the water and the laud is altogether in favor of the water. 

 Au acre of land will produce corn enough to support a human being, but an acre of 

 water will produce enough to support several persons, and could readily be made, with 

 proper aid, to sustain the lives of luauy more. The former requires manuring, working, 

 planting, and harvesting ; the latter merely requii'es harvesting ; and that, where the 

 fish are sufficiently abundant, is hardly a labor at all. While the yield from the land 

 is reasonably large, the prolit is exceedingly small. The held must be plowed and 

 harrowed and fertilized ; the corn must be planted ; it must bo plowed again ; and 

 still again must be hoed ; and at last the ears must be stripped, husked, and ground. 

 What is the net result of this, compared with the natural increase of tish grown in 

 abundance, almost without elibrt, finding their own food, and finally taken in some 

 net, which does its own fishing while its owner is sleeping ? 



***** Fish neglected, destroyed, poached, and wasted can soon be anni- 

 hilated. Their reproductive power can only ma.intaiu a certain equilibrium; incline 

 that toward destruction, and the entire class will quickly disappear. • Treat them like 

 wild animals and they will inevitably be exterminated; domesticate them, as it were, 

 encourage their growth, by putting them under healthful influences, protect them from 

 unseasonable disturbance, let them breed in peace, guard the young from injury, as- 

 sist them by artificial aid, select the best varieties for appropriate waters, and we 

 will sooii augment the supply as greatly as wo do with either land-animals or vege- 

 tables. 



A HUNDRED YEARS' PROGRESS. 



By Charles L. Flint. 



The Centennial Exhibition, to be held in the city of Philadelphia in 

 the year 187G, is to be a memorial of the struggles, the sacrifices, the 

 heroic endurance, and the triumphs of our fathers in founding a free 

 government, claimed to be the highest type of civil polity which the 

 world has ever seen. As the time draws nigh, this grand occasion 

 appeals to the pride, to the patriotism, to the reverence for the past, 

 to the memory of the dead, to the highest and most unselfish feelings 

 of every American heart, to make it a success, and, beyond all ques- 

 tion, the grandest event of the kind which mankind has ever beheld. 

 Anything short of this will fail of its x)urx)ose. 



