PISCICULTURE. 



40? 



In 1853, Dr. Garlick, and Prof! Ackley, of Cleveland, Ohio, 

 are mentioned as the first who successfully hatched the eggs 

 of the brook-trout ; they were followed in 1859 by Stephen H. 

 Ainsworth, of West Bloomfield, New York, and afterward 

 by Seth Green, of Muraford, New York, and Livingston 

 Stone, of Charlestown, New Hampshire, and subsequently by 

 many others in all parts of the country. 



" Soon the bright streams 



That once were scant of Asa, 

 Will swarm with myriads 

 For the poor man's dish.'* 



Under the superintendence of Mr. Green, a large hatching- 

 house was erected near Mumford, New York, by the author- 

 ity of the State government, which is now producing im- 

 mense amounts of the eggs and fry of nearly all descriptions 

 of game and food fisheB. In the year 1871 Congress estab- 

 lished a Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, whose duty it 

 was to investigate the matter ; and Prof. Baird, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, was appointed commissioner. His exer- 

 tions were crowned with success, and the United States, in 

 proportion to the time occupied, is not behind other nations 

 in the great work. 



Commissioners have been appointed by most of the States 

 in the Union, and the breeding of fish has become almost 

 as common as the raising of stock for food. . Mr. Green, 

 who, with Mr. Ainsworth, is the pioneer of fish - culture, 

 says that " an acre of water can be made to produce as 

 much as two acres of land ; " and E. B. Roosevelt, Fish Com- 

 missioner of New York, asserts that 500,000,000 shad ought 

 to be hatched in the Connecticut Eiver every year. Already 

 millions of the last-named fish have been deposited in the 

 Hudson, Connecticut, and other rivers, and shad have been 



