178 THE SHAD STREAMS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

searcity of fish, the third year after these boxes were first used in the 
hatching of shad it is said the catch exceeded that of any year in its 
history. The young shad return mature fish to the rivers when three to 
four years old. Fisheries which had been in existence for nearly a cen- 
tury, and at which records of their annual catch were kept, reported 
their yield of 1870 as being larger than ever before. Referring to this 
result, the Fish Commissioners of Connecticut, in their report for 1873, 
said: 
“The number of shad running in the Connecticut river has increased 
to such an extent that the complaint of the fishermen is no longer a 
paucity of fish, but that the market is so overstocked that they do not 
obtain a remunerative price for them.” 
The same desirable result was claimed by the use of these hatching- 
boxes in the Hudson river, but not to so marked a degree owing to a 
scarcity of good spawning grounds upon which to take the shad. Care- 
fully considering what had been accomplished by artificial propagation, 
and believing that fully as much could be done for the shad streams of 
Pennsylvania, the commissioners felt justified in paying Mr. Green the 
amount of money named for the use of his invention. 
Very soon after the purchase of the right to use the hatching-boxes 
Mr. Green came to Pennsylvania, bringing with him an assistant, Mr. 
Edward H. Boehme, and a station was at once established at the fishery 
owned by Miller & Kough, located at Newport, in Perry county. At 
the time of the establishment of this station as a base of operations the 
water temperature was about 62° Fahrenheit; within a short time af- 
terwards it ran up as high as 75°, and at one time reached 82°. This 
sudden and extreme change very noticeably affected the gravid fish, very 
many being taken with the eggs dead in them. Owing to these un- 
fortunate causes the operations at this station were not as successful as 
they otherwise would have been, but about 2,700,000 young shad were 
hatched. 
About this time another of Seth Green’s assistants was sent by Prof. 
Spencer F. Baird, the United States Commissioner of Fisheries, to the 
Susquehanna to assist in the work of hatching shad, the State of Penn- 
sylvania paying all the expenses of hatching other than that of his own 
personal compensation. Owing to the suddenness with which the warm 
season set in he was able to hatch only about 500,000, and the total 
number of young shad produced by the artificial method and for the 
first time liberated in the Susquehanna river, was something in excess 
of 3,000,000. 
Dr. J. H. Slack, one of the Fish Commissioners of New Jersey, was 
authorized by the United States Fish Commissioner to establish a hatch- 
ing station on the Delaware river at Point Pleasant, Bucks county, and 
was placed in charge of the same. At this station not quite 500,000 of 
shad-fry were hatched and turned into the Delaware in the latter part 
of the month of June, 1873. 
