President B. S. Ford, of the Chester River Steamboat Com- 

 pany ; and Mr. T. P. Clark, agent of tlie Eastern Shore 

 Steamboat Company. 



We beg leave also to tender our thanks to Mr. Samuel M. 

 Shoemaker, Resident Manager of Adams Express Company, 

 for active co-operation. 



We will not, in the present report, simply give a resume of 

 the work accomplished during the last year, but will, in some 

 degree, endeavor to foreshadow the work which is proposed 

 in the future. We have deemed it of greater importance, 

 than desultory propagation here and there of even a large 

 number of fish, the establishment of a systematic course of 

 procedure, rather to build up for the future a permanent and 

 efficient organization, than to be depeudent on the skilled 

 labor imported from other parts of the country, and on tem- 

 porary and less efficient structures and apparatus. 



If the attempt to introduce the California Salmon into our 

 bay and river is successful, as we have every reason to 

 believe it will be, it will be necessary for some years to come, 

 in order to keep up the supply, and increase their number 

 sufficiently to make them a source of cheap food to the people, 

 to continue this artificial propagation. AVith this view, 

 instead of renting a place temporarily, and devoting a large 

 proportion of the appropriation to procuring and hatching 

 the eggs of this and the other varieties of the Salmon family, 

 we worked steadily to the erection of a permanent building, 

 in which we and our successors would be able to propagate 

 those varieties, the eggs of Avhich are matured in hatching- 

 houses, and at comparatively small cost. 



We now have one of the best hatching establishments in 

 the world, and possibly the most conveniently arranged in 

 this country. The large number of eggs handled by a small 

 force, and the success with which our work has met during 

 the past two seasons, are abundant proofs of the efficieno.C 

 and capacity of the Druid Hill Hatching House. We have, 

 for the propagation of those varieties of fish v/hich spawn in 



