Fish Cidhirists' Association. 21 



surely be stocked again, and become as productive as in their best 

 daj^s ; and the quicker it is done the better, for they are getting poorer 

 every j-ear. 



In the year 1868 I was in Washington, and hatched a few shad in 

 Gen. Spinner's office. I told him I could stock the Potomac with 3'ouug 

 shad, and in three years they would be as plenty in that stream as they 

 ever were. He asked me how much it would cost. I said $2,500 would 

 do it. He said he could get an appropriation from the Government, and 

 we went to the Capitol and told the members our story. The}' presented 

 a bill, and one of the members objected to it ; that was the end of it, and 

 Gen. Spinner was one of the maddest men I ever saw. He said it was the 

 greatest calamity- to the country that had happened in this generation, 

 and so it was. If he had obtained the $2,500 appropriation the Poto- 

 mac River would to-day be the greatest shad river in the world. At that 

 time I was the only man who had ever hatched shad to know anj'thing 

 practicall}' about it, and did it all with my own hands. Now it is differ- 

 ent. I have eight practical men, and every one of them is able to run a 

 shad hatching establishment. There is but one other in the country 

 who can, and that is Charles Smith, who was with me at Holyoke in 1867. 

 Shad hatching is a trade by itself. A man may know how to hatch other 

 kinds of fish, and make a perfect failure in hatching shad. He may know 

 how to hatch shad in a running stream, and fail in tidal waters ; but there 

 is enough known about it now to restock all our shad rivers, and in a few 

 years make them equal to their best days, if the work is well arranged. 

 The next great thing to be done is to stock all our larger lakes with sal- 

 mon trout and whitefish. We have been hatching these for the last 

 seven years, and I know that our great lakes can be abundantly stocked 

 in a few j-ears. The Canadian Government would probably assist, as 

 they have eminent fish culturists, Avho know the benefit both countries 

 would derive from the work. Even if one side was willing, and the other 

 not, the undertaking would pay millions of dollars to either. Let each 

 side, then, go to work on its own hook, for as soon as one side begins 

 tiie other will surely follow. If we begin first, we cannot do so much 

 that the Canadians will not tr}- to out do lis, and vice versa. Much 

 valuable time is lost by waiting. 



Three 3'ears ago I took as many salmon trout spawn with four men as 

 I secured last Fall with twelve, and if the fish decrease in the same ratio 

 for a few years more it will take a long time to stock the lakes again. 

 The black, Oswego, and rock bass, and the wall-eyed pike are valuable 

 for stocking our inland waters. It is well enough to exchange spawn 

 with the old countries without going to much expense in doing it. We 

 have as fine varieties of fish in this counti-y as there are in an}' other. A 



