FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 243 



drank a lot of them in the water he dipped from a can in the glass used for the pur- 

 pose of examining the fry. It is not unusual for people to go into the shad hatchery 

 at Catskill and with hundreds of thousands of shad fry in tanks level with their eyes, 

 and glass on all sides, with a good light for background, ask where the young shad 

 are. It is for this reason that I wonder if any one could see dead fry in the river 

 even if they were there. 



This is exactly what is done by the State in hatching shad for the Hudson river 

 in the shad station at Catskill. One man from another State hatchery is sent there 

 to take charge of this work, and two old shad fishermen are employed on the spot. 

 This constitutes the State force. A professional shad fisherman, who has a seine 

 hauling ground near the hatchery receives $20 per day from the State. This man 

 employs a crew of twelve men in seine hauling for shad and herring. When the 

 seine is hauled two of the men from the hatchery are present and examine the fish, 

 and if any ripe females are found they are spawned artificially. The only condition 

 imposed by the State is that a given number of hauls must be made, if necessary, on 

 each day that he is paid. 



If the eggs of the spawning shad were not taken by the hatchery men they 

 would be lost, as shad netters never return to the river any shad taken in their nets. 

 The $20 partly recompense the captain of the crew for the delay in overhauling his 

 fish and for the extra hauls which may be demanded. The State does not barrel 

 the shad or do anything else with them, for they belong to the netters and probably 

 go where they would in any event, whether there was a hatchery or not, to market. 



The eggs rescued from fish destined for market are taken to the hatchery and 

 hatched. If there had been no market fishermen to net the shad, and they had 

 spawned naturally, perhaps one or two per cent of the eggs would have hatched, but 

 in the hatchery jars eighty to ninety per cent are hatched, and when the yolk sac is 

 nearly absorbed, and the fish are ready to begin the battle for life that all fish have 

 to begin at some time or another, they are planted in the river in just such places as 

 the parent shad would have selected for natural hatching had they been consulted. 



Should any one get the idea from the above interview that the State gets any 

 large numbers of spawning shad by the arrangement I have mentioned, I will give 

 the exact figures. So far this year the men at the Catskill hatchery have secured 

 188 spawning fish. The largest number on one day was 25, the first day; the next 

 day 24, and the next day 5. The lowest number in one day was 2, and except the 

 first and second days the number highest was 15. From the 188 shad the men have 

 taken 4,940,000 eggs which would have been lost by the fish going to market if they 

 had not been rescued and hatched at the expense of the State 



