24 



that the males are ripe at a year old, and corae into the rivers, 

 led by the sexual instinct, while the females are not fecund 

 mitil the second year, when they make their appearance as small sized 

 shad ; that they reach a merchantable size, or a weight of about four 

 pounds, in three years ; that at this age they have spawn in the ova- 

 ries of three distinct sizes, plainly apparent, and the microscope 

 reveals others still smaller in reserve ; that only the larger eggs, or 

 about one-third of those visible, are spawned, while those that remain 

 are the crops for the two succeeding years ; that the spawn of a full- 

 grown shad, the ovaries weighing thirteen ounces, is about 70,000 in 

 one season. 



The operations of Seth Green, at Hadley Falls, in the summer of 

 1867, mark a new era in fish culture. When it is considered that 

 Mr. Green was a pioneer in this work, and had only his experince in 

 hatching the ova of the Sahnonidce to guide him, his complete suc- 

 cess in a single season must be regarded as marvelous. This story is 

 told so well by Mr. Lyman, of the Massachusetts Fish Commissioners, 

 that we copy from his report of the year : 



" Green began his experiments the first week in July. He 

 put up some hatching troughs, like those used for trout, in a brook 

 which emptied into the river ; and having taken the ripe fish in a 

 sweep seine, he removed and impregnated the ova, as is usual with 

 trout spawn. These, to the number of some millions, he spread in 

 boxes; but, to his great mortification, every one of them spoiled. 

 Nothing daunted, he examined the temperature of the brook, and 

 found, not only that it was thirteen degrees below the temperature 

 of the river (sixty-two degrees to seventy-five degrees), but that it 

 varied twelve degrees from night to day. This gave the clue to suc- 

 cess. Taking a rough box, he knocked the bottom and part of the 

 ends out, and replaced them by a wire gauze. In this box the eggs 

 were laid, and it was anchored near the shore, exposed to a gentle 

 current, that passed freely through the gauze, w^hile eels or fish were 

 kept oif. To his great joy, the minute embryos were hatched, at the 

 end of sixty hours, and swam about the box like the larvse of mosqui- 

 toes in stagnant water. Still, though the condition of success was 

 found, the contrivance was still imperfect; for the eggs were drifted 

 by the current into tiie lower end of the box, and heaped up, whereby 

 many were spoiled for lack of fresh water and motion. The best that 

 this box would do was ninety per cent, while often it would hatch 

 only seventy or eighty per cent. The spawn-box he at last hit upon 

 and is as simple as it is ingenious ; it is merely a box with a wire 



