148 



AMERICAil FISH CULTTJKE. 

 Artificial Breeding. 



" Compared with the former table, the results in favor 

 of artificial propagation are as 162,036 to 84, or, as 2000 

 to 1, nearly. This is nothing unbelievable. * * But it 

 is a difference that ought to call the attention of all 

 thoughtful persons to this subject. It would be very little 

 labor or expense to set free 100,000,000 young shad in the 

 Connecticut, and these might reasonably be supposed to 

 return us nearly a half million of two-year-old fish. Fif- 

 teen hundted large females would yield the required 

 amount of spawn, and this is not more than a half of one 

 per cent, of the females now yearly taken in the river." 



The supposition that shad remain at sea two years is yet 

 to be proven. I know, from personal observation, that 

 their growth is rapid, for I have taken scores of them in 

 August, when fishing in a deep tideway for white perch ; 

 the size averaging six or seven inches in length, which at 

 least equals that of the generality of smolts. If the 



* From the eggs of two females : — -^ of 140,000. 

 ■f From the eggs of the two-year-olds. 



