XLII -SUMMARY OF REPORTS FOR 1878, BY STATE FISH COM- 

 MISSIONERS RESPECTING THE INCREASE OF FOOD FISHES 

 BY ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION.* 



MAINE. 



Atlantic salmon. — The results of our salmon planting have been most 

 satisfactoryj as exhibited on the Penobscot, Androscoggin, St. Croix, 

 and Medomac. On the Penobscot the yield has been very large. Per- 

 haps no better summary can be given than the paragraph we here quote 

 from the Bangor Commercial : 



" The salmon fishers must now cease their fishing, as the close time 

 for this season commenced to-day. The run has, in the main, been quite 

 large. There was a time early in the season when they reached the 

 remarkably low j)rice of 8 cents a x>ound at Bucksport, but, as a rule, 

 the prices have been good. A good deal of money is brought to the 

 Penobscot Yalley by this important industry." — July 15. 



Since July the number of salmon on the east and west branches has been 

 reported to us as very large by the river drivers. Parties of excursion- 

 ists have likewise rei)resented young salmon as being very numerous, and 

 annoying much by their numbers, and rising to their flies when fishing 

 for trout. On the St. Croix the yield was large for that river. It may 

 be remembered that in 1873 we transported 10,000 salmon fry to 

 Vanceboro, which we turned into the St. Croix at that place. In 1874, 

 50,000 salmon ova were hatched for us in the hatching-house of the 

 Dobsis club, and turned into the St. Croix tributaries. We think the 

 inference is fairly deduced that these contributions have materially 

 added to the stock of the river. On the Androscoggin a good many 

 salmon have been taken the last two or three years. Mr. Ambrose T. 

 Storer, the fish warden at Brunswick, writes under date of August 25, 

 1878 : " I have tried to ascertain the number of salmon caught on the 

 Kennebec, but was unable to learn the exact number, but think it 

 larger than usual. Mr. Trott caught seven in one day. I don't know 

 how many have been caught in the small rivers tributary to the Andros- 

 coggin, but on this river the number caught by our fishermen was four- 

 teen, which is more than has been caught before for some years. I 



* The report of the commissioners of New Hampshire for 1878 contains an excellent 



summary of general results of fish culture by the States, from which numerous extracts 



have been made and inserted under their respective headings. The selections for 



this article have been made by Mr. C. W. Smiley. 



925 



