1020 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the people of Michigan 8,000,000 of fine fish, all destined for Lake Erie ; 

 and it is the inteutiou to continue the work on this scale, and thus to 

 place 32,000,000 fish in this one lake. 



Gentlemen, these are magnificent results; and remember with what 

 ease these milUions of young fish were called into existence. I certainly 

 do not aim at anything too difficult, if I say to our German piscicultu- 

 rists, " We must do the same." 



Besides these great and chief efforts, there are all sorts of little side 

 efi'orts to which American pisciculturists give their attention — Seth 

 Green, it seems, always prominent. Thus, during the summer of 1875, 

 attention was directed to the sturgeon. Gentlemen, you know this 

 great fish. Its flesh is not particularly tender, but very nutritive; 

 "Albany beef" they call it in America. However, the main question is, 

 how to produce cheap food for the masses. Seth Green, on the 4th of 

 June, went to New Hamburg, on the Hudson, a well-known spawning- 

 ground of the sturgeon, took from a female sturgeon five dishes-full of 

 eggs, from a male sturgeon the necessary quantity of milt, placed the 

 eggs in a shad-box in the river, and behold, after three days, 40,000 young 

 sturgeons were hatched. It might have been a million, tor a large stur- 

 geon has so many eggs. Gentlemen, could we not attempt something 

 like this during the coming June? Where could we find better oppor 

 tunities than in Magdeburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, in East Prussia! 

 O, might these feeble words of mine produce some action in this direc- 

 tion ! I shall always be ready to make communications from the Ameri- 

 can reports. 



Once more I turn to America, to give a cursory review of the work 

 done in some of those nineteen States which have fishery commission- 

 ers of their own. 



I have already mentioned how the shad was domesticated in Califor- 

 nia. The same result crowned the efforts made to introduce the Coregonus 

 in that State, and all accomplished with a few thousand dollars. 



The State of New York seems to take the lead in pisciculture. In the 

 last report of the New York commissioners it is said that the State 

 hatching-house gratuitously distributes to all who desire young fish for 

 public waters, salmon, salmon-trout, whitefish, and different kinds of 

 perch. This institution has recently been considerably enlarged, so as 

 likewise to raise brook-trout. Although several millions of young fish 

 had been gratuitously distributed, there remained in the institution 

 March 1, 1876, one million trout and three million salmon-trout. 



Connecticut, not satisfied with its wealth of shad, likewise put millions 

 of young salmon and salmon-trout in its rivers. All this involved an 

 expense of about $30,000. The flourishing condition of the Connecticut 

 fisheries is chiefly ascribed to the strict fishing-laws, and particularly 

 to the weekly season when fishing is prohibited. 



Maine chiefly devoted her attention to fish-roads. Massachusetts 

 aims at iiicreasing the number of fresh-water herring, but also placed 



