[23] FAILURES AND SUCCESSES OF FISH-CULTURE. 459 



UNITED STATES. 



Professor MalingTcii admits that some ^ood results have been reached 

 in shad-culture, but as reg-ards the results of other fish-cultural exi)eri- 

 nients he is exceedingly skeptical. The results obtained in ^had-culture 

 deserve some fuller mention than Professor Mamlgren makes of them. 

 The shad had become somewhat rare in the American rivers, so much so, 

 in fact, that when Professor Baird in 1873 intended to make a beginning- 

 with shad-culture in the Savannah Kiver, Georgia, he could not obtain 

 there the necessary sj)awners. The first attempt at shad-culture was 

 made in the Connecticut River in 1807, and during the period from 1868 

 to 1873, 29 shad hatcheries were engaged in the culture of that fish in the 

 United States. Convincing proof of the favorable influence of artificial 

 fish-cultnre was furnished in the Connecticut liiver, where young shad 

 had been planted since 1807. In the spring of 1870 unusually large 

 schools of this fish were observed in Long Island Sound, near the 

 mouth of the Connecticut River, and in May of the same year such 

 enormous masses of shad were caught in the river as to throw into 

 the shade even the best fish years of former times, some hauls yielding 

 from 2,000 to 3,000 fish. The number of fish caught in 18'71 and 1872 

 was even greater, exceeding anything since 1811. Ju 1872 the price of 

 sliad on the Connecticut River fell to from ~> to K) cents apiece. 



On the Hudson and the IMenimac the number of shad has likewise 

 increased greatly. On the Hudson the price of shad in 1877 fell to 

 5 or 6 cents apiece, and these fish were cheaper than 20 years ago, when 

 the price was three times as high. (Circulars of the German Fishery 

 Association, 1874, p. 68; 1875, p. 327; 1877, p. 43.) 



Satisfactory i)roof of the success of salmon-culture in the United 



States has also been furnished in the Connecticut River. After the 



salmon, in consequence of the construction of a weir, had since 1798 



gradually disappeared from this river, a beginning was made in 1869, 



with the planting of salmon fry above the weir. In 1878, the salmon 



again made their appearance in the Connecticut River, and by the 



middle of June of that year 500 salmon had been canght. (See Von 



Behr's '■'■ Artierikanisclie LesefrUchte^^ in Circulars of the German Fishery 



Association, 1878, p. 77, and 1879, p. 68.) Artificial salmon-culture 



has likewise jiroved very successful in California. As Professor Baird 



rei)orts, the stock of fish in a California river, where annuallj^ 2,000,000 



fry had been planted, rose from 5,000,000 to 15,000,000 pounds. {Deutsche 



Fischerei-Zeitung, 1838, p. 316.) 



I Successful attempts have also been made in the United States to 



I cultivate artificially the cod. After the United States fish-cultural es- 



I tablishments at Gloucester and Wood's Holl, Massachusetts, had planted 



I fry of the cod, the fishermen on the coast of New Hampshire, near 



I Portsmouth, in the autumn of 1882, observed great numbers of small cod- 



