63 i, -2 



REPORT 



or THE 



srs Qi i*'isneri2S 



OF 



nv[:^^:R_"Y'x_..A.][sriD, 



To His Excellency James Black Groome, 



Governor of State of Maryland : 



The Commissioners appointed by your Excellency in j)ur- 

 suance of Chapter 150, of the hiws of Maryland, enacted at 

 the session of the General Assembly of 1874, beg leave to 

 submit the following ; 



We have combined the report of 1874, (not printed,) with 

 that of 1875, that the work of the Commission, from the 

 adjournment of the legislature of 1874, to the assembling of 

 that of 187G, might be transmitted to that honorable body by 

 your Excellency in its entirety. It is much to be regretted 

 that we are without reliable statistics of the annual yield of 

 our waters, and have only to rely on information furnished 

 from the memory of fishermen and fishdealers, but enough 

 has been obtained to satisfy us, that the most valuable fish- 

 eries are becoming less and less productive, and our waters 

 are being depleted of their yield of fishfood, to an alarming 

 extent, and we now feel that necessity for the j^rotection of 

 our fishes, and the resort to artificial means^of fish culture to 

 restore our waters, which has stimulated in turn, other more 

 densly peopled countries. Most of tlie States have been im^ 

 pelled to protect and propagate food fislies in consecjuence of 

 the fearful decrease in the yield of their fisheries, save the 

 State of Califoi-tjia, Avhich is with great foresight, prosecuting 



