Report of the commissioner for 1875-1876.

  • United States Fish Commission
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioner for 1875-1876. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fish, will in time be satisfactorily solved. The rapidity with which this is done will, of course, depend upon the extent of the appropriations made by Congress, and their judicious administration. It may be stated in general terms that important advances have been made during the past year in the methods of fish culture and of the transportation offish, and that these have resulted principally from the labors of those connected with the various State Fish Commissions and that of the United States. The more important improvements, per- haps, have been suggested by the member of the New York State hatch- ing establishment under Mr. Seth Green, and by Mr. T. B. Ferguson, the Maryland Commissioner of Fisheries. Notwithstanding the very great attention which the art of fish culture has received in Europe, this country has found little occasion to adopt any foreign methods or processes; indeed, the American methods have been received with very great favor in Europe, and constant applications have been made for descriptions, drawings, and models of the American apparatus. Applications for eggs and young fish.—In the infancy of the operations of the United States Fish Commission, the Commissioner and his assist- ants were obliged for the most part to make their own selections of suit- able places of deposit of the young fish. With the rapid increase in the number of State commissioners much of this responsibility has been removed ; the latter gentlemen, having better knowledge of the character of the waters and the most suitable points for the introduction of the fish, in many cases receiving the eggs from the United States establishments and having them hatched out at the expense of the State or of private subscriptions. There has also been a very rapid increase, very largely through mem- bers of Congress, in the number of applications for the benefits of the Commission. The ratio of the increase, and the character of the appli- cations made, will be best understood by the following table, which exhibits the number and character of applications for fishes from 1873 to 187G, inclusive. From this it will be seen that the California salmon is in greatest request: Number of applications. 1873 19 1874 42 1875 52 1876 174 Total 287 Shad 88 California salmon 123 Atlantic salmon 27 Land-locked salmon 38 Whitefish 9 Eels 2 Total 287
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