270 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Access to suitable spawuing-grouuds iu sufficient numbers to compensate for loss 
by capture and natural causes is a physiological necessity for the maintenance of the 
fisheries if dependence is placed on natural reproduction. But from the foregoing it 
appears that the construction of dams has excluded shad from a large portion of the 
spawning-grounds, notwithstanding the erection of fishways in those obstructions; 
sawdust, chemicals and other refuse and agricultural operations have greatly impaired 
the utility of the spawning areas even now available, and the extensive fisheries have 
very largely decreased the number of the shad reaching those areas. These adverse 
agencies have reduced natural reproduction to almost an insignificant factor in the 
maintenance of the present fisheries and have rendered artificial propagation essen- 
tial to their prosperity. During the seventies the returns of the fisheries reached a 
minimum ; then the results of artificial propagation began to appear, not only restor- 
ing the former abundance of shad, but even increasing the catch. 
The total shad yield on the Atlantic coast and rivers in 1880 numbered 5,162,315; 
in 1888 it was increased to 10,181,605; in 1896 it was further increased to 13,067,469, 
29 per cent greater than in 1888 and nearly three times as great as in 1880. While 
this increased yield was preceded by an increase in the quantity of apparatus used, 
yet it was made possible by the greater abundance of shad, due to artificial propaga- 
tion. Comparing 1880 with 1896, it is observed that the increase in the yield numbered 
7,905,154. At 20 cents each, which is the average price paid by consumers, this rep- 
resents an increase of $1,581,030 in the value, over 50 times the expenditures for shad 
propagation; a result probably unsurpassed in any other line of public appropriation. 
The large number of persons employed in this fishery and the present inability of 
natural reproduction to maintain the supply make it essential that no decrease be made 
in this important branch of fish-culture. 
A . — Summary of the original and of the present limit of shad range in twenty-three of the principal 
rivers of the Atlantic seaboard. 
St. Johns 
Altamaha 
Ogeechee 
Savannah 
Edisto 
Pee Deo 
Cape Fear 
Neuse 
Pamlico-Tar 
Roanoke 
James 
Rappahannock . . . 
Potomac 
Susquehanna 
Delaware 
Hudson 
Housatonic 
Connecticut 
Morrimac 
Kennebec 
Penobscot 
Distance 
of sources 
above 
coast line. 
Original limit of shad run. 
Sources 
Macon 
Ogeechee Shoals 
Tallulah Falls . . 
Sources 
Great Falls 
Green River 
Wilkesboro 
Haywood 
Sources 
Rocky Mount . . . 
Weldon 
Falmoutli Fa'lis . 
Great Falls 
Binghamton 
Deposit 
Glens Falls 
Falls Village . . . 
Bellows Falls... 
Winnepesaukee 
Caralunk Falls . 
Distance 
from coast 
line. 
Present limit of shad run. 
Distance 
Locality. 
from coast 
line. 
Miles. 
Sources 
375 
Hawkinsville 
300 
Millen 
100 
Augusta Dam 
209 
Jones Bridge 
281 
Great Falls 
272 
Columbia 
233 
Grassy Island 
242 
Stanley Falls 
181 
Fish dam 
300 
Rocky Mount 
157 
Weldon 
249 
Boshers Dam 
140 
Falmouth Falls . . . 
155 
Great Falls 
190 
Clarks Ferry 
279 
Burrows Bam .... 
Troy 
164 
Birmingham 
92 
Windsor Locks. - 
89 
Lawrence 
20 
Augusta 
44 
Verona 
35 
