But if with comparatively little care and expense our great rivers can be stocked, in the meanwhile there is room enough for private enterprise. There are tew farmers in our country who do not have upon their land a lake, or spring, or clear running stream. If these men knew how easily they could turn this water to profit, not only by raising food for themselves, but a supply for the city and village market, there would soon be very few waters without their finny inhabitants. How much this would add to the wealth of the country any one can see at a glance.

Fish culture is not a matter either wholly of public or private interest, in part it is one, in part the other. The great lakes, the immense rivers, the long line of ocean coast can only be restocked by governmental aid and for the general good, but the private ponds, the small streams and the individual fisheries are to be replenished by private effort, and for the special benefit of their owners. As the shad are probably the best and most valuable fish for the public, so is the trout wherever it belongs or can be acclimatized the most desirable for individual purposes. The shad yields the largest amount of food while the trout holds the highest price in market, and possesses as a subject of sport a still higher value. Where neither shad nor trout can live some variety of the fresh water bass will answer for private or public waters, and the pike perch, (wall-eyed pike) is admirably adapted to larger rivers and lakes. There is hardly any pond, stream, river or lake, be it large or small that cannot be utilized, and the land owner that has not the facilities for raising salmon may supply his family with an excellent article of food in the shape of bull-heads or gold fish.

The number and kinds of fish that are treated are increasing daily. The chinese probably confined their efforts to carp. We began on salmon. Then the effort was extended to trout, then to shad, to salmon trout, to whitefish, to striped bass, to sturgeon, to smelt, to grayling and indirectly to black bass, strawberry bass, oswego bass, pike perch, yellow perch, cattish, oysters, lobsters, gold fish, and other fresh water fishes, and we may confidently expect in time, to assist nature in multiplying all or nearly all the fishes that live on our coast or in our lakes and rivers. Not a year passes but some new and valuable discovery is made, and the importance and interest of fish culture increases with every development. Already twenty four states and territories have appointed commissioners to protect and develop their fisheries while the United States have established a Fishery Commission for the entire Union. The systems followed in the United States and abroad, even in modern Europe are wholly different. The famous establishment at Huenin-guen, which having been founded by France, came through the fortune of war under the dominion of Germany is conducted on a plan that seems to us less effective and more wasteful that is adopted here. There awards are offered for ripe fish, which are secured and kept alive by individuals in any part of the country, and information of the fact is sent to the authorities at Hueninguen, who dispatch an expert to take the roe and melt which are then hatched at that establishment under government care; the living fry being distributed again at government expense. In this operation there is more labor and less profit than there should be. There is danger of depleting the waters from which the eggs are taken, and while certain streams are replenished others may be impoverished. With us mature trout are kept for the express purpose of breeding, no shad, whitefish or salmon trout are used, except those that would be caught and killed by the fisherman, and salmon eggs are only obtained from rivers teeming with a supply. As for the New York commission we can say no fish are killed purposely to obtain their eggs, and no streams can possibly have been depleted by the action of the commission.

There are certain well marked eras in fish culture in which the main discoveries have been made. Most of the appliances adopted abroad have been abandoned with us, and great strides have been made in developing the art. Our first great discovery was what is known as dry impregnation, that is the use of little or no water in impregnating the eggs with the male fluid. This was kept a secret however, from the public until it was re-discovered in Russia. Here it was first practiced in 1864, and up to that time twenty-five per cent. of the eggs was the greatest number impregnated; immediately afterwards the proportion rose to seventy-five per cent. and is now ninety eight. At present " dry impregnation " is universally adopted. The next great discovery in appliances was the shad hatching box, which has never been superceded for certain classes of fishes and situations, nor has it been improved on since it was invented. Another seemingly trivial but extremely important discovery was the application of coal tar as a coating to wood work and all articles that come in contact with the eggs, and on which fungus could do harm by growing. The last was the invention of the Holton hatching box for hatching whitefish, but which is a valuable convenience in managing the eggs of all the salmon and trout. These discoveries have reduced the labor and expense of fishculture immensely, and have added in an equal degree to efficiency and certainty of success.

Commissioners of Fisheries - As the reader may desire to communicate with the commissioners of one or more of the states, we append a list of their names and addresses as they were in the year 1878 :

United States.

Prof. Spencer F. Baird..... Smithsonian Institute,

Washington, D. C.

Dominion Of Canada.

W. F. Whitcher,.......................................Ottawa.

W.H.Venning,......................................St. John.

Inspector of Fisheries for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Maine.

E. M. Stilwell,..........................................Bangor.

Henry O. Stanley.......................................Dixfield.

New Hampshire.

Samuel Webber.....................................Manchester.

Albina H. Powers,....................................Grantham.

Luther Hayes............................................Milton.

Vermont.

M. Goldsmith,..........................................Rutland.

W. H. Lord, D. D.,..................................Montpelier.

Massachusetts.

Theodore Lyman,.....................................Brookline.

E. A. Brackett.................................... .Winchester.

Asa French,...................... .............South Braintree.

Connecticut.

William M. Hudson,....................................Hartford.

Robert G. Pike,.....................................Middletown.

James A. Bill,............................................Lyme.

Rhode Island.

Newton Dexter.....................................Providence.

Alfred A. Reed, Jr.,..................................Providence.

John H. Barden,.......................................Scituate.

New York.

R. U. Sherman,........................Oneida Co., New Hartford.

Robert B. Roosevelt,...............................New York City.

Edward M. Smith,....................................Rochester.

Michigan.

Eli B. Miller,........................................Richland.

George H. Jerome,.....................................Niles.

Andrew J. Kellog,.....................................Allegan.

New Jersey.

J. R. Shotwell............................. .............Rahway.

G. A. Anderson,.....................................Trenton.

D. Howell,...........................................Woodbury.

Virginia.

A. Mosely,.... ..................................Richmond.

Dr. W. B. Robertson,..............................Lynchburg.

W. G. Ellzey,........................................Blacksburg.

Alabama.

Charles S. G. Doster,..............................Montgomery.

Robert Tyler,......... .......................Montgomery.

D. R. Hundly,,....................................Cortland.

California.

B. B. Redding,.....................................Sacramento.

S. R. Throckmorton,..............................San Francisco.

J. D Farwell,....................................San Francisco

Pennsylvania.

H. J. Reeder,............................................Easton.

R. L. Hewitt,.....................................Hollidaysburg.

J. Duffy,.............................................Marietta.

Ohio.

John C. Fisher,.......................................Coshocton.

John H. Klippart,............ .......................Columbus.

Robert Cummings,......................................Toledo.

Maryland.

T. B. Ferguson,....................................Baltimore.

P. W. Downes,..........................................Denton.

Iowa.

Sam B. Evans,......................................Ottumwa

B. F. Shaw.......................... ...............Anamosa.

Charles A. Haynes,....................................Waterloo

Minnesota.

R. O. Sweeny,........................................St. Paul.

Wm. Golcher,..........................................St Paul.

Robert Ormsby,................................... ....

Wisconsin. Hon. Harrison Ludington,...........................Milwaukee.

A. Palmer,............................................Boscobel.

William Welch........................................Madison.

P. R. Hoy,...............................................Racine,

H. F. Dousman,........ .........................Waterville.

Illinois

W. A. Pratt........................Elgin.

Arkansas.

N.H.Fish,...........................Pure Bluffs.

J. R. Stulman,............................Little Rock.

N. B. Pearce,.......................................Fayetteville.

Kentucky.

Pach, Thomas,........................................Louisville.

P. H. Darsey,..................................Caldwall County.

Polk Laffom,............................. Hopkins County.

S. W. Coombs,..................................Warren County.

C. J. Walton,......................................Hart County.

James B. Casey,................................ Kenton County.

John A. Steele,.............................Woodford County.

J. H. Bunce,....................................Garrard County.

T. T. Garrard,.....................................Clay County.

W. C. Allen.........................................Bath County.

Utah Territory.

A. P. Rockwood, ...........................Salt Lake City.

West Virginia.

John W. Harris........................................Louisberg.

Henry B. Miller,........................................Romney.

C. S. White,...........................................Romney.