THE HISTORY OF FISH-CULTURE. 543 



extensive and novel work compared with all previous enterprises in fisli- 

 cnlture ; and as far as the rivers of the Atlantic coast southward from 

 the Connecticut are concerned, salmon will experience no change in con- 

 ditions that will prevent a successful result, except possibly the great 

 numbers of nets that may hinder the ascent of the salmon in the rivers 

 at the spawning-season. 



A summary of the very important results that have been developed 

 in the culture of salmon, enhancing the interest of fish-culture, would 

 begin Avith — 



(1.) The official attention of States to the restoration of inland fisheries 

 by artificial propagation, which began in Massachusetts in 1850, but took 

 practical shape in 1866, when Dr. W. W. Fletcher, of Concord, was sent by 

 the State of New Hampshire to obtain salmon-eggs from the Miramichi 

 Eiver of ISTew Brunswick. In the same year the government of Canada 

 began a like enterprise, and in Canada and the United States it has been 

 continued and become a successful and more and more extensive enter- 

 prise yearly ; and since 1872, under the auspices of the United States 

 Commission of Fisheries, an extensive distribution of this valuable 

 species has been carried out. 



(2.) In the culture of this species hj the Canadian government and 

 the State of New Hampshire, the first application in America of the arti- 

 ficial propagation to a commercial fish of wide demand and extensive 

 sale in the market was instituted. 



(3.) An improved method in impregnating, resulting in the fertiliza- 

 tion of almost the entire quantity of eggs, and that is essentially an 

 American method ; as in the so-called dry method in Europe, in all in- 

 stances it is provided that water should be used, though in small quan- 

 tity, while the method first used by Mr. Atkins, and afterward by many 

 fish-cultnrists of the country, makes no application of water until after 

 the eggs and milt have come thoroughly into contact. 



(4.) Mr. Atkins's manner of obtaining seed-fishes by purchase through 

 the whole of the period of immigration into the rivers prior to spawning 

 antl preserving them in ponds, is an original method for obtaining an 

 unlimited quantity of eggs, not, I believe, before adopted in any country. 

 In Switzerland living salmon have been transferred to new locations for 

 natural spawning, or those about to spawn have been transferred for a 

 short time to ponds, and the eggs taken ; but as far as we can learn, 

 Mr. Atkins was the first, at least on a large scale, to secure salmon iu 

 the spring, on their entrance into the river, and keep them for four or 

 six months. 



(5.) The arrangement by Mr. Atkins of troughs having trays placed 

 at a distance above the bottom was a decided advance in apparatus, 

 from the facilities afforded in manipulation of the eggs and removal of 

 sediment. 



The shad. — In 1867, it was determined by the commissioners of some 

 of the New England States to attempt the restoration of the shad by 



