150 



anchored in the stream, tied one to the other, the eggs 

 are turned in by the hundred thousand, and in about a 

 week there are myriads of minute but lively shad swim- 

 ming about and begging to be allowed to grow fat and 

 feed mankind. The eggs are as a score to one in abun- 

 dance ; the loss is almost nothing, and the time, trouble 

 and expense are infinitely less. 



Nor is this all. When the trout is hatched he is 

 encumbered with his umbilical sac for a month to such 

 a degree as to be unable to protect himself, while the 

 shad can be turned loose the day he is born. It is true 

 that he has the same appendage, but it is a small one and 

 does not seriously impede his motions. In habits also 

 the shad fry exhibit their superiority over their more 

 aristocratic cousins. Instead of seeking to hide their 

 diminutive heads under every leaf and pebble, and in 

 every out of the way corner playing at hide and seek 

 with death, they with greater wisdom push out into the 

 deeper water and broader stream. There in mid-river 

 they float heading up against the current, taking the 

 water with whatever ot microcosmal food — invisible to 

 man — it may contain into their mouths, feebly wagging 

 their limp tails to keep them in position, and slowly 

 settling down stream toward the ocean where they are 

 destined to pass the next year or two waxing plump and 

 fat for the benefit of man, but at no expense to him of 

 purse, brain or muscle. 



The discovery of the habits of shad fry was made in 

 rather a singular way and exemplifies the dangers to 

 which in their natural condition they are exposed. As 

 with their hatching, so with their treatment afterwards,; 

 it was natural to follow the system we understood and 

 practiced with trout. The box containing the first re- 

 sults of the fish culturist's skill was towed near the land 



