FISH CULTURE. 11 



For the purpose of stocking habitable waters with 

 fishes suited to the waters, recourse is now most economi- 

 cally had to the process of collecting, fecundating the 

 eggs of the various desired kinds, incubating them to the 

 degree most favorable for transportation, and hatching 

 them in the waters the fish are intended to inhabit. For 

 this purpose central establishments, under skilled supervi- 

 sion, are required. Whether this State will choose to have 

 one of her own, or purchase the necessary ova from hatch- 

 ing establishments already erected, is a mere economic 

 question. 



Another matter to be determined is the rights of own- 

 ers of lands on Lake Champlain and on the Connecticut 

 in the fisheries adjacent to their lands. If the fishermen 

 employing nets along the shores of Lake Champlain 

 would simply save the spawn of the fishes they take at 

 spawning time, impregnate it, and place the eggs thus 

 secured in conditions favorable to the hatching of the 

 eggs, the fishing grounds thus stocked with spawn would 

 soon teem with fish. As it now is, there are no adequate 

 personal motives operating upon individual fishermen. 

 For they say, We have no exclusive right to the fisheries 

 at any given place ; if we had, or if we could legally 

 acquire them, we should at once and always thus utilize 

 the spawn, which, in the present state of things, goes to 

 absolute waste. It seems probable that the establishment 

 of riparian rights by the State, vested in adjoining land 

 owners, or in the State itself, would tend largely to in- 

 crease the fish supply, provided the fishing was controlled 

 and regulated by competent authority. 



The regulation of the fisheries is a sine qua non. One 

 great evil to be prevented is the wanton or wasteful dq- 



