158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and there is no foundation of truth in it Avhatever, in my 

 opinion. 



Secretary Sessions. I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, that the 

 question which has l)een raised here has drifted into a per- 

 sonal matter or into a political matter, — into the question 

 of State rights. I may l>e wrong, but as I understand it 

 the State of Massachusetts forbids her own citizens catching 

 fish in this manner just as she does the citizens of other 

 States. The question is . not in issue here whether the 

 citizens of Rhode Island should be allowed to catch fish in 

 the same way that the citizens of Massachusetts are allowed 

 to catch them, but the question is whether the policy of 

 Massachusetts in forbidding the catching of fish in thij 

 wholesale manner is the right system to be pursued. It 

 seems to me we ousht not to allow this matter to degenerate 

 into any other question than that ; that is, the question 

 whether our policy is correct in forbidding fishing in this 

 wholesale manner, not as to whether we shall allow the 

 citizens of Rhode Island to catch our fish, or whether fish 

 eat up the sewage, or anything of that sort. That may be a 

 minor question, and may modify it somewhat. I do not like 

 to see this personal feeling manifested when there is no 

 cause for it at all. The question is a fiiir one, of course, 

 whether the United States shall be allowed to police our 

 waters, or whether Massachusetts shall do it herself; but it 

 seems to me that if the policy of Massachusetts is wrong in 

 this respect the place to go for a remedy is the Massachusetts 

 Leirislature, and if the jNIassachusetts Legislature can be made 

 to believe that the State has made a mistake in this matter 

 the law will be changed. If Mr. Ware believes there has 

 not been any mistake made, he has just as good a right as 

 anybody else to present his views there, and if he can con- 

 vince the Legislature that he is right, the law will remain as 

 it is. But, as I say, there is no (|uestion of State rights 

 here. 



Mr. John Bursley (of West Barnstable). Coming as I 

 do from Cape Cod, it may not be out of place for me to give a 

 little personal experience with fish, — not with the men- 

 haden, but with the herring. They have frequented a 

 stream which borders on our })lace in greater or less numbers 



