for home consumption since hatching was discontinued 

 at South Hadley Falls. In i8So the catch of shad in 

 the Connecticut was 268,608, or about equal to 

 1,074,432 pounds, with a value of $53,721. In 1889 

 the catch of the whole State of Connecticut, including 

 the Housatonic, Connecticut and Thames Rivers was 

 less than one-third of the catch of 1880, the official 

 figures for the three rivers being 48,963 shad, weighing 

 195,852 pounds, and worth $16,580. 



These figures for tw-o different years would mean 

 little did we not know that that the falling off had been 

 gradual, and that the catch has fiuctuated with a down- 

 ward tendency for the past six seasons. 



The shad in the Hudson have been enabled to 

 stand the drain caused by an increased local population 

 and the shipments by rail by two factors; artificial fish 

 culture and the newly worked southern rivers. I say 

 "newly worked" because it is only a few years since the 

 northern markets have taken great quantities of shad 

 from the south. Ten years ago New York City was 

 forced to look beyond the Carolinas for early shad, and 

 Florida besfan to sfet her fish to the crreat market even 

 as early as January ; and how long these rivers wdll 

 stand the increased fishing without crying for aid from 

 the fish culturists remains to be seen. At present the 

 hatching of shad is mainly done on the Hudson, the 

 Delaware, Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. Some 

 work has been done on Virofinia rivers and in North 

 Carolina, but the work of the U. S. F. C, near Havre 

 de Grace, where the Susquehanna loses Itself in Chesa- 

 peake Bay, has been one of the most important 

 stations. Last year the State of New York received 

 over seven millions of shad fry from that place for 

 planting in the Hudson, in addition to what hatching 

 was done on that river. 



