544 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



artificial propagation, and the aid of Seth Green was obtained in the 

 matter. He began his experiments at South Iladley Falls, on the Con- 

 necticut River, using the ordinary methods and apparatus in trout- 

 hatching, which failed entirely to answer the purpose, because of the 

 low specific gravity of the eggs and the coldness of the water used. 



He then attempted to hatch them in floating boxes with wire-cloth 

 bottoms, which proved for a long time failures, because of the difficulty 

 of producing a current inside of the boxes that would keep the eggs in 

 motion, until happily he tried the experiment with a box having the 

 bottom tilted at an inclination toward the current, when he found the 

 eggs were gently and continuously stirred by the entering waters, and 

 the proper construction of apparatus indicated. 



The quantities of young shad released into the river made a consider- 

 able impression on the fisheries three years afterward. 



This seems to have been the first attempt to artificially fecundate 

 and hatch the eggs of aijy species of this family, {Clupeidw,) which con- 

 tains species affording a very large proportion of the resources repre- 

 sented among the commercial food-fishes of the world, including the 

 Astrachan herring of Russia, shad, alewife, herring, sardine, anchovy, 

 menhaden, sprat, &c. The three first named are anadromous, and for 

 these only, in the present state of fish-culture, will the art be available. 



There has been no instance in the history of fish-culture where its 

 application to the restoration of a species has so quickly and certainly 

 afforded evident results as in the experiments of Seth Green upon the 

 shad of the Connecticut River. Mr. Green continued his work the 

 succeeding year, using the same model of box, which has not been 

 improved upon since, though experiments with, other models have been 

 made by other fish-culturists on theMerrimac and Androscoggin Rivers. 

 In 1869 he began on the Hudson Kiver, under the auspices of the State 

 commission, and a yearly increase of the species has resulted. 



In 1871 he successfully moved a quantity of shad to the Sacramento 

 River, California, and in 1873 the United States commission transferred 

 a large number to the same river. A few have since been taken in the 

 river, and the State commissioner thinks that others have been captured, 

 and the fact concealed, on account of the penalty imposed upon any 

 one taking them during five years after their first planting in the Sac- 

 ramento. 



The IS^ew York commissioners have had considerable numbers put 

 into the Genesee River of Lake Ontario, and an extensive distribution 

 into the tributaries of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and great lakes 

 has been carried out by the United States. 



The hatching of shad is prosecuted each year by Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and by the United States 

 commission. Full references to these State and national operations will 

 be found elsewhere in the present report. 



