6 



Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, with their widely ex- 

 panded waters, and the skiggish currents of those locations 

 in which we have to operate, is, that the apparatus used is 

 imperfectly adapted for our requirements. It is hardly pos- 

 sible in the Chesapeake Bay, where the eggs can be procured 

 in sufficient quantities, to get enough current to use the box 

 with an inclined bottom. The motion given to the eggs is 

 rather by the up and down motion of the boxes, as they 

 dance on the swell of the waves, than by the passing current. 

 The inclined bottom of the box, under these circumstances, 

 tends rather to crowd and pack the eggs in the lower edge 

 than give them the required circulating motion, and keep 

 them in suspense. 



These, and many other surrounding conditions, have com- 

 pelled us to modify greatly the apparatus which has been so 

 successful in other waters, and has caused us to devise new 

 systems of operation. 



As with the Trout, Salmon and other fish we may have 

 by placing the whole of the means at our disposal 

 in the simple operation of Shad hatching alone, been able 

 during the last season to have turned loose in our waters con- 

 siderably larger numbers of fish than we succeeded in doing, 

 but we would have been in no better condition to carry on 

 the work in the future, and would not have been able to eflect 

 that steady recuperating increase in the yield of our fisheries, 

 which is so important, so necessary, an"d so entirely possible. 



Under the system which we have pursued we are every day 

 becoming better and better able to meet the exigencies of the 

 service, becoming better and better equipped, and we hope 

 during the coming season to be able to carry on this import- 

 ant branch of the service on a larger scale than has ever 

 been attempted in this country. 



The State of Maryland is peculiarly fortunate in the pos- 

 session of a large expanse of water which hitherto has been 

 very productive, but from causes enumerated in our last 

 report, these waters have, year by year, become less and less 

 prodactive, until, as was the case last sea^on, maay of the 



