ferro) to api)ear boFore the committee, and explain to them 

 the ends whicli it was hoped couhl he accomplished. After 

 their deliberations, the committee reported unanimously, a 

 hill similar to that enacted by the Maryland Assembly, crea- 

 ting a commission, and making an ai)propriation for fisli cul- 

 ture, but unfortunately for the inhabitants of the Potomac 

 as producers, and the people of the States as consumers, 

 owing to the adjournment of the Virginia legislature, the 

 bill was not passed until thefollov/ing session. We are hap- 

 py to report that the bill became a law on the twenty-fifth 

 day of March, 1875, and Messrs. A. Moseley, W. B. Robert- 

 son and M. G. EUzey, were appointed Commissioners. Your 

 Commissioners have been in constant communication with 

 them, and have found them on all occasions ready to co-ope- 

 rate, to the extent of their means, in any vrork on the Poto- 

 mac, tending to the benefit of that river. 



Shad , (Aloso sapidlssinia . ) 



This being the most important of the food fishes of our 

 waters, your Commissioners immediately on their appoint- 

 ment, sought for means for tlieir increase by artificial propa- 

 gation; and the following letter was addresed to the United 

 States Commissioner of Fish and Fislieries, Professor Spencer 

 l'\ Baird, who had kindly promised his aid in this most im- 

 portant work. 



Maryland Comaiissiox, Pish and Pisiieiue^, 



192 JSr. Charles St., Baltimore, 9th April, 1875. 

 Prof. Si'EXCEii V. Bairi>, Commissioner General, 



Fish and Fisheries, U. S., Washington, D. C. 



Ucar /SVr;— Knowing that you are in communication with 

 many efficient persons, expert in manipulating ripe fish and 

 batching the spawn, I write to beg you to secure for our com- 

 mission tlie services of a comi)etent person, and make the 

 necessary arrangements lor hatching station to be established 

 to take advantage of the spawning season of our Shad and 

 Pock. I will select the locality at which our operations will 

 be conducted, as soon as I return from my mission to Rich- 

 mond. My absence at this time renders it necessary for me 

 to ask your valuable assistance in this matter. As you are 

 aware that our appropriation is very limited it is not neces- 

 sary for me to ask you to make these arrangments on as eco- 

 nomical a scale as consistent with efficiency. I have the 

 honor to be very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



T. B. Ferousox, Commissioner of Fi'sheries. 



