}~}'i Thirti/si.rllt All II ltd I Mccliinj 



more a (jiicslion of the place ^vlu'^' you ])laiit tliom. Ho plants 

 liis shad fry in some |i(m<ls thai are free from other lish. I do 

 not tliiiik Dr. Smith would luive you understainl that the experi- 

 ments of the bureau were entirely satisfactory, or carried to a 

 conclusion. There was some evidence that mon' tliaii one shad 

 got out of the ])ond in years previous to those in which we niiide 

 the count. But 1 for one, am very sorry that the experiment 

 could not ha\(' been continued another year, witli tlie hope that 

 wf could have tilled a ])ond with watt']-, without supplying 

 it with the eggs of other tish, and then stocked it with shad^ 

 even if we lost every fingerling shad wln'u counting them. 

 I think it would have been a contribution to the fish cultural 

 knowledge of this country, to have destroyed every one of those 

 million shad, if l)y so doing, to find out the results from plant- 

 ing fry in a pond of that character were definitely ascertained. 

 I hope that the Connecticut conmiissioners will sacrifice the 

 shad in at least one of their rearing ponds one season, or such 

 proportion of them as it is necessary to sacrifice, in order to 

 ascertain somewhere approximately at least the number of fish 

 Avhich grow up to fingerlings when planted under those favorable 

 conditions. We know that the planting of the shad fry in the 

 various ri\'ers by the bureau of fisheries has produced tremen- 

 dous result-s. I understand that yesterday the reasons why the 

 shad fishery has been going down in the last few years were fully 

 explained. 



Mr. Geer : I might tell one thing connected with our Housa- 

 tonie retaining pond. While we sacrifice virtually the shad and 

 know that a great many of them reach the fingerling stage. — to 

 explain that point: It has a long brook which runs into it. 

 That brook is full of pickerel, and wlien avc canu' to draw it oif' 

 the 3^ear following the October we ])lanted the fry there, we 

 ripped the .pickerel open and picked out two to four or six sliad 

 ■ — every one of them. We sacrificed tliat shad. And anotlier is 

 on our Connecticut river, on which we ha\e three ponds there in 

 a chai]i. In the upper ])ond tliere were a great many little fry 

 ])ut in there in the last of August or first of Septendu'r. Tliei'c 

 came a cloudlnirst which i-aised tliose ponds to something that 

 wt' nevi'i- knew hefoi'c. and hefoi'c the suiJcrinttMident could get 



