Fjsh Cultu rusts' Association. 5 



eastern bays and laojoons and upon the larger rivers derive their 

 principal means of sustenance directly from these waters, and in all 

 of these districts far more families are supported by the water than 

 by the land. In the west there is nothing of this sort. The mar- 

 kets are almost bare of fish ; a few cattish, suckers and pickerel con- 

 stitute the wretched and meager bill of fare they offer. The muddy 

 Mississippi contains little or nothing. The beautiful Ohio has but 

 one or two sorts of pike and perch, whicli the inhabitants flatteringly 

 call salmon, while catfish hide in most of the discolored streams of our 

 continent, and suckers explore the bottom for their food. If any thing 

 can be done to improve this state of affairs, to make fish and fisher- 

 men as abundant in the west as they are in New England, and to 

 develop the same activity in the matter as exists in the east, it is 

 well worth the serious consideration of the government. By this 

 means a new industry, an additional source of income, an entirely 

 different species of food would be introduced, and an immense 

 increase added to the wealth of the whole region of country. There 

 is no reason why the waters of the west should be less prolific than 

 those of the east, provided the right species were introduced; and 

 were trout, salmon, shad, bass and sturgeon to take the place of cat- 

 fish, pickerel and suckers, the gain would be manifest. It seems to 

 me clearly to be the duty of the government to assist in this very 

 work of introducing new varieties, as well as replenishing the old, 

 where they have been reduced. 



" No private person can own a shad which is here to-day and 

 to-morrow in mid-ocean, nor is a single resident on a river's bank 

 sufficiently interested to incur the expense of importing fish 

 for the benefit of his neighbors. This is the nation's duty or it 

 is nobody's. The mighty rivers of the southern and western 

 States, which now generally produce only the poorer sorts, could 

 readily be stocked with the most palatable and prolific varieties. 

 The cost of the undertaking is insignificantly moderate. A salmon 

 hatching-house can be built for $1,000, while the necessary imple- 

 ments for shad raising are too inexpensive to be worth mentioning. 

 Some labor must be employed, but it is mostly unskilled and cheap, 

 while the outlay for transportation is simply the mere charge of 

 express or traveling fare. The people of this country would not 

 grudge this, were it a hundred times as great, with the certain pros- 

 pect of developing a new food resource, and of diminishing the 

 price of living to the poor." 



