792 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



The experience of 1888 was repeated with scarcely a variation for ten years 

 or more. In other words, the rearing of shad fry was a success throughout. In 

 my intimate association with the Fish Ponds and the Superintendent, the late 

 Rudolph Hessel, and with the Central Station, which supplied the fry, I heard 

 no suggestion of disappointment from any source. On one occasion I under- 

 stood that some of the fingerling fish, on close examination, were found to be 

 alewives, or river herring, but it may be said that any pond of a tidal or semi- 

 tidal kind in the region of the river herrings is almost sure to contain some of 

 their young. In the experimental ponds at Edenton Station the screens were 

 kept in all the time and adult herring could not enter, but eggs were deposited 

 on the outer surface of the wire mesh and the resultant fry, along with many 

 others, perhaps, swam through the meshes. In fact, any screen that would allow 

 the water to drain or waste from a pond would scarcely exclude the minute 

 young of the river herrings. A noteworthy feature of the shad-rearing in 

 connection with the work at the Fish Ponds, in view of the successful results, 

 was the inferior quality of the fry supplied to the station. I personally know 

 that, for a number of seasons, it was "the weak fry," "the early and weak 

 fry " — fry that were of less than average vitality — that were consigned for these 

 experiments. 



Not only was the rearing of shad at the Fish Ponds a striking success, but 



an experiment at the more distant Neosho Station, in Missouri, under the late 



Superintendent William F. Page, was equally gratifying. In the commissioner's 



report for 1893, Superintendent Page says: 



In addition, 200,000 fingerling shad were liberated in waters tributary to the Gulf 

 of Mexico. Their number could not be ascertained except by estimate, owing to the 

 fact that these fish can not be successfully handled. They were the product of 700,000 

 fry sent from Washington in the preceding June. In preparing for their release the 

 hatchery branch was, in October, cleared of shoals, drifts, and aquatic plants for three- 

 quarters of a mile, to a point where it empties into Hickory Creek. Earlyin November, 

 when the branch was swollen by rain water, the 6-months-old fish were allowed to pass 

 through open gates. They were some hours in escaping — a continuous silvery mass. 

 These were the first fingerling shad planted in waters tributary to the Gulf of Mexico. 



It will be well to note also what follows in Mr. Page's accotmt, as below : 



The pond which contained the shad was infested with crawfish, i ,750 pounds being 

 removed and destroyed between August 3 and October 31. These were estimated 

 to be 70,000 in number. By some unaccountable means black bass of the large-mouthed 

 variety were also present. In preparing for receipt of the shad the pond had been 

 drawn in November, 1891, and the bottom exposed for three weeks, and in the following 

 April the process was repeated, all water connections with black bass ponds having 

 been broken and an independent supply being established. On August 3, the intruding 

 fish being observed, a hook and line were brought into use, and on the first day 5, averag- 

 ing i>2 pounds each, were caught, and by October 31 the catch had reached a total 

 of 152. It is believed that they burrowed in the mud, surviving the absence of water 

 during the two periods mentioned. 



