33 



ized as theirs. Why she accomplishes so much is the fact that 

 associated individual effort always does the work in the quickest 

 possible manner, while the work in America has been under the 

 auspices of State legislation, and confined to a few quite impracticable 

 men like myself. The work accomplished in England is for the few, 

 while here in America the work is for the many. The rivers there 

 are individual and corporate property, while with us it is the property 

 of the eminent domain, and consequently the stocking of our rivers 

 is very slow and uncertain. A few States in New England have 

 begun in the work, and have labored as well as they could under the 

 encouragement they have received. They conceived it to be the work 

 of the State instead of the work of the individual. So we find such 

 men as Geo. P. Marsh, of Vermont, and A. H. Robinson, of New 

 Hampshire, making a lengthy report, almost simultaneously, to their 

 respective State Legislatures upon the subject of restocking the rivers 

 with migratoi'y sea fish. 



These reports were made as early as the year 1857, setting forth what 

 the Old "World was doing in the matter of fish culture, and that like 

 results could be effected with us. Yet nothing was done by the 

 Legislatures till much later. Trout breeding was first engaged in by 

 individual eft'ort about this time, and seemed to engage the whole 

 attention of the public, and nothing more was done about the matter 

 of migratory sea fish till 1864 and 1865, when several of the New 

 England States passed sundry resolutions touching the matter. Fish 

 commissions were appointed, concurrent legislation had, and the 

 enterprise set agoing. From one to two years was spent by the fish 

 commissions of the States in perfecting the laws touching this matter, 

 making themselves acquainted with the business before them, and 

 finally, in 1866, starting Dr. Fletcher, of Concord, N. H., for adult 

 salmon, in New Brunswick. 



The doctor writes me that " in August, 1866, I went to New 

 Brunswick, accompanied by Arthur Fletcher, of this city (both of us 

 employed by the commission), for the purpose of transporting some 

 of the adult salmon alive, intending thereby to restock our rivers with 

 that fish ; but were unable to procure them in suitable condition for 

 transportation at that time." 



From the account given by Dr. Fletcher, it seems that he alone was 

 the first man who started out in pursuit of the salmon, yet Mr. Non-is 

 tells us that *' the first attempt at breeding salmon artificially in the 

 United States was by James B. Johnson, Esq., of Now York city, 

 who imported ova of the salmon from the Danube in 1864, and 

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