20 



sible, and have introduced into the State the fish which are at the same 

 time the most valuable and the most generally liked. 



Before closing these remarks, let me sa}^ a few words about increas- 

 ing the Salmon of the Sacramento River, by artificial means. 



The commercial value of the Salmon of the Sacramento is undoubt- 

 edly capable of great extension. Just beyond the minimum limit of the 

 prices of Sacramento Salmon, lies a double trade in these fish, each 

 branch of which, with fair opportunity, would exceed the extent of the 

 present business of the fisheries of the river. The only reason why 

 larger quantities of fresh Salmon are not sent East in the Winter from 

 the Sacramento River, both in cans and in ice, is because the prices of 

 Salmon in California are too high. If the prices were reduced a little, 

 by increasing the abundance of the fish, both these trades would then 

 open up in verj* large proportions. The case is exactly parallel with 

 that of most exportable merchandise.' The moment the cost of the 

 goods declines bej^ond a certain limit, so as to make exportation profit- 

 able, a large exporting business immediatel}' springs up. So it would 

 be with California Salmon. They can be taken to Truckee any time in 

 the Winter, and frozen in a few hours, and then shipped with perfect 

 safety to Chicago and New York, and sold there at remunerative prices 

 and in great quantities, if the original cost of the fish in California is 

 not too great. 



The same is true in regard to canned Salmon — a form of preserving 

 Salmon which has brought enormous returns to operators on the Colum- 

 bia River. Salmon cost too much at present on tiie Sacramento River, 

 but if they could be increased so as to sufficiently reduce the first cost, 

 canjiing Salmon could be carried on, on the Sacramento, at a profit, and 

 with this advantage over the Columbia River, that the freight from 

 Oregon to California would be saved — an item in the Columbia River 

 trade which alone amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars annu- 

 ally. To show what a canning business could be done on the Sacra- 

 mento River, if Salmon could be obtained cheaply enough, it is only 

 necessary to say that there were, in round numbers, twenty million 

 pounds of canned Salmon exported from the Columbia River last year, 

 at a cost value of two million dollars. The canning business on the 

 Columbia employs one thousand eight hundred men. The cost of the 

 tin alone consumed by the canners on the river, amounts to several 

 hundred thousand dollars. It is unnecessary to speak of the advan- 

 tages that such a business would bring to the State of California. I do 

 not say that the canning of Salmon would ever be brought up to the 

 same proportions on the Sacramento that characterizes the business on 

 the Columbia River, but if Sacramento Salmon would be made abundant 

 enough to be cheap, something of very considerable importance could 

 undoubtedly be done in this direction, which, added to the shipping of 

 frozen Salmon, would make the exporting of Sacramento Salmon a very 

 valuable branch of industry in the State. 



That the Salmon can be thus increased in the river so as to be made 

 cheap enough to export in the Winter, seems to be a matter of very 

 gi'eat certainty. The artificial propagation of Salmon has been carried 

 to such a point of proficiency that with any given number of fish, ninety- 

 five times as many young Salmon can be brought into existence as would 

 be naturally produced by the Salmon themselves, for, in artificial prop- 

 agation, ninety-five per cent of the eggs are hatched, while by the natu- 

 ral process not over one per cent is hatched. A moment's consideration 

 will show that with this enormous advantage the Salmon can be in- 



