141 



CHAPTER XII. 

 SHAD CULTURE. 



The fish for cultivation in American waters, the fish 

 which nature has given us preeminently as one of its best 

 gifts to man is the shad. Adapted to all our seaboard 

 streams ; once numerous in every river that emptied into 

 the ocean, from Florida to Maine ; prolific to a remark- 

 able degree, easily manipulated, requiring no aid to pro- 

 cure its support, it fairly cries to man for his assistance 

 and protection. An excellent addition to the table, it is 

 welcome to the epicure, while so cheap has it been within 

 the memory of even young men, that it was not denied 

 to the poorest among us. Of course it has been grow- 

 ing scarce of late ; inroads have been made on its vast 

 numbers. The fishermen with their drift nets and seines 

 and stake nets, of which there must be thousands upon 

 thousands ot miles in the entire country, have done their 

 best in the way of extermination, and have almost sue 

 ceeded. Some streams have been depopulated, in others 

 fisheries have ceased to be remunerative ; the markets are 

 being scantily supplied, and prices have risen enormously. 

 Shad are following in the wake of salmon in consequence 

 of American energy of destruction. A lew years more 

 of uncontrolled pursuit and shad would have been as 

 rare as salmon, and selling for a dollar a pound. The 

 want of legal restrictions, the neglect of restoration, or 

 even preservation would in a very short time have de- 

 prived the community of what is still, in a semi-exhausted 

 condition, a large part of its fish food. 



Habits or Shad. — Shad make their appearance along 

 the Atlantic coast of the United States early in the year. 

 The first school usually strikes in at the Florida rivers in 



