FISH CULTURE. 13 



millions of young shad sufficient to produce the quantity 

 of shad required by the commercial necessities of those 

 rivers. The cost of these establishments may be paid by 

 the State out of the public treasury, or by a royalty 

 gathered from the fisheries. The cost of such establish- 

 ments is almost nominal, since all of the fish caught are 

 as well fitted for the market after being used for the 

 purposes of propagation, as they would have been had 

 they been used for no such purpose. Indeed, not more 

 than 10 per cent, of the fish taken in any one draught of 

 the seines are ripe. The sale of the fish goes a great way 

 towards the whole expenditure. 



Inasmuch as the raising of the fish in private preserves 

 is fast coming, in this State, to be a settled branch of 

 industry, promising to those who pursue it, to be a 

 profitable branch of industry, it would seem to be well 

 for the State to pass such laws as will favor, protect and 

 foster this industrial measure. It so happens that in this, 

 as in most matters to be learned, demonstration is a more 

 available teacher than literature can ever be. A State 

 hatching establishment, involving, as it does,, breeding as 

 well, situated at some central point, like Montpelier or 

 Rutland, would do more for the rapid dissemination of a 

 knowledge of the best methods than all the reports which 

 could possibly be scattered through the State. Beside, 

 at such an institution, there could be determined by skilled 

 experiment all these economic questions as yet but poorly 

 determined, and which lie at the bottom of the whole 

 matter of this branch of fish culture. What is the cost 

 of a pound of trout expressed in pounds flesh ? What 

 3 



