VI 
we would look for a proportionate increase in the number of 
fish brought to and consumed in the city of Washington. 
Unfortunately for us, Washington is the only place where an 
accurate record of the fish product is kept. The Health Com- 
missioner of that city is required to inspect all marine pro- 
ducts and report the number examined. We have taken from 
his reports the numbers inspected during the same period, and 
there the increase is as noticeable as at the Head of the Bay. 
In 1872 he inspected 917,221 shad. 
“ 1873 “ 852,900 “ 
“ 1874 “ 628,637 “ 
“ 1875 “ 464,215 “ 
“ 1876 “ 319,079 “ 
“ 1877 “ 131,199 “ 
“ 1878 “ 121,785 “ 
“ 1879 “ 328,435 “ 
We have additional testimony tending to prove that the in- 
crease of the supply of shad is the result of artificial propa- 
gation. By reference to our report of January, 1877, which 
recorded the shad hatching operations at the Head of the Bay, 
it will be noticed that a large number of fish were deposited 
in Swan Creek. During that season we were compelled to 
seek a locality in which there was a current sufficiently strong 
to afford to the eggs the necessary agitation and change of 
water. We, therefore, established one of the hatching stations 
on the creek just mentioned, as it offered the required condi- 
tions, and to that point transferred nightly the eggs taken on 
the flats. As soon as the fish were hatched they were depos- 
ited in the immediate vicinity of the hatching station. During 
last season, after an almost total absence of many years, adult 
shad appeared in this creek in such numbers as to attract sev- 
eral fishermen, whose labors were here amply rewarded. 
The fishermen who operated there last season report a pre- 
ponderance of small male or buck shad. 
We have not, hitherto, felt justified in promising to do more 
by artificial propagation than simply to arrest the alarming 
decrease in the yield of the fisheries of the State. But from 
the results already obtained we are now confident of our 
