REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XLIX 



suing this method, with our capacity for producing fry, we could turn 

 out each season into the Atlantic rivers 100,000,000 shad from 3 to 4 

 inches in length. The system of rearing ponds with a supply of natural 

 food will, I am sure, be adopted in the end both for the production of 

 shad and the various Salmonidce. 



SOME RESULTS OF ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION. 

 PROPAGATION OF SHAD. 



Since 1875 the U. S. Fish Commission has been engaged in the arti- 

 ficial propagation of the shad. 



Prior to 1880 the immediate object and motive of the work was the 

 production of fry, with a view to their introduction and acclimation in 

 those river basins of the United States in which the species is not 

 indigenous. 



The fisheries census of 1880 and special investigations made under 

 the immediate direction of the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisher- 

 ies revealed plainly the fact that there was a rapid decline in the pro- 

 ductiveness and value of the shad fisheries in the Atlantic coast rivers, 

 and that this decline was the inevitable result of adverse conditions, 

 which were apparently beyond direct regulation or control by the Gen- 

 eral Government. 



The Fish Commission could offer but one hope, namely, the artificial 

 propagation and distribution of the young. Would these means be 

 adequate; could we, by rescuing from waste the eggs taken from the 

 shad captured in the nets of the fishermen, and destined for the mar- 

 ket — by impregnating, hatching, and returning them to their native 

 waters — arrest this decline, and, in the face of adverse conditions, 

 determine a steady and progressive improvement in one of our most 

 important fishery industries ? 



This was the definite problem to the solution of which the Com- 

 mission addressed itself. Systematic development and extension of 

 the shad-hatching operations of the Commission were undertaken 

 with the definite purpose of testing the value of artificial propagation 

 as a chief reliance in maintaining an important fishery, in the face of 

 most unfavorable conditions, and — in a field which nature had aban- 

 doned as hopeless — determining a steady increase in value and pro- 

 duction. 



In 1880 the aggregate catch of shad in Atlantic coast waters, from 

 Connecticut to North Carolina, was 4,140,908. The fisheries were stead- 

 ily declining and there was a general and well-founded apprehension of 

 their ultimate extinction. The work of stocking the streams was stead- 

 ily prosecuted, increasing numbers of fry being planted each year, the 

 total plant in 1888 aggregating 153,890,300 fry. 



In 1885 a careful census of the shad fisheries of the region indicated 

 was taken. The result of this was encouraging, since it showed an 

 H. Mis. 133 iv 



