116 



two-inch bass — less than one five-pound bass M^ould 

 rear if all eggs and fry survived — will go but a very 

 little way toward supplying the waste of a whole month 

 of fishing during the breeding season. 



Another law that the commission has to contend 

 with to keep up the supply of one of the most import- 

 ant of food fishes is the shad law. Before the con- 

 struction of the Erie Canal in 1825, which necessitated 

 building a dam across the Hudson River at Troy, shad 

 ran up the Hudson to Bakers Falls at Sandy Hill, fifty 

 miles above Troy, and furnished food to a community 

 to which shad is now a comparative rarity. In that 

 day many a farmer came to the river below Bakers 

 Falls and camped until he had secured and salted 

 down a supply of shad for the winter. The Troy dam 

 checked the upward migration of the shad from the 

 time it was built until this day, but good catches of 

 shad were made just below the dam up to within, sa}^, 

 ten or fifteen years ago. Within a few daj^s just 

 passed 1 have questioned the net fishermen who have 

 applied to the commission for license to net the river 

 at or near Albau}^ for herring, and they tell me it 

 would not pay them to set a net for shad. The pres- 

 ent shad law relating to the Hudson provides an open 

 season between March 14 and June 15 for netting shad, 

 "but said nets shall not be drawn nor fish taken there- 

 from between sunset on Saturday night and sunrise on 

 Monday morning, unless by reason of the inclemency 

 of the weather said nets cannot be drawn prior to sun- 

 set on Saturday night, in which case it shall be lawful 

 to take fish therefrom as soon as the weather will per- 

 mit." With this law in force the commission has been 

 unable to secure a sufficient number of ripe shad at 

 Catskill to keep up the supply of this species of fish in 

 the river without assistance from the United States 

 Fish Commission. It was thought advisable by the 

 commission to amend this section of the law at the ses- 



