It may not be generally known that the Connecticut, which forms the boundary between Vermont and New Hampshire, is altogether within the latter State, the line being low-water mark on the western shore.

A note from Robert B. Roosevelt, a member of the New York commission, states, as the result of his observations upon several of the southern rivers, that the shad fisheries, formerly so prolific and regarded as practically inexhaustible, are greatly depleted. The fishermen, while complaining of the reduction of their business, manifested no disposition to accept the suggestion or aid of himself or Mr. Green toward restor ing their former prosperity; and the conclusion was reluctantly adopted that if anything of importance was accomplished, it must be done by the general government.

In a recent letter to the Commissioner of Agriculture, Seth Green, one of the commissioners of fisheries of New York, whose labors in fishhatching have been remarkably successful, (and whose success has been acknowledged by the Paris Société d'Acclimatation in an award of a silver medal,) writes as follows:

"Last spring I visited the James, Potomac, Susquehanna, Delaware, Hudson, Connecticut, and Merrimac Rivers, and find that all the fisheries are failing, a less number of shad, herring, alewives, &c., being taken each year. The chief cause of this decline is the great amount of fishing tackle used on the rivers, the take being greater than the increase. The rivers can all be restocked artificially, but not without legislation. The fishermen want to take the last fish, but no one of them will do any hatching for fear some other fisherman inay take some of the fish.

"The season varies in all the rivers. After a certain season in each river, there should be no fish taken except for artificial propagation. The rivers must be farmed from one end to the other. You might as well undertake to raise produce on one farm to feed a country, as to hatch fish enough at one fishery to stock the river. They should be hatched at every fishery, and when the fishermen put back in the river a thousand fish for every one taken out, there will be plenty of fish, and that will be done when the legislatures make laws recommended by the commissioners of fisheries. But when the fish commissioner prepares a bill, after long experience and careful consideration as to what is requi site and proper, the legislator thinks a few minutes to see if he or his friends are to be interfered with, and strokes his beard very knowingly; and there are so many such to convince that you are right, that it is almost impossible to get a bill through.

"I think the hot weather has killed a great many fish in all the rivers and bays. On the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th of July, the water in the Connecticut River stood at from eighty-two to eighty-eight degrees. I saw many dead shad in the river, and the fatality must have been much greater in the less rapid rivers, bays, lakes, and ponds, and I think it a serious loss to the country.

"I began to operate June 18, at Holyoke, on the Connecticut River, and hatched about forty millions of shad by July 12, when the water became so warm that it cooked the spawn in the boxes. Shad cannot be hatched successfully in water warmer than seventy-eight degrees. Shad spawn cannot be carried more than two days' journey. All the water of this country can be filled with fish adapted to them. Every acre of water is worth two acres of land if properly farmed. Most persons suppose that it can be done at trifling expense. It can be done cheap, but it cannot be done for nothing. Spend one-thousandth part of the sum spent in tilling the land, in cultivating the water, and fish may be sold in our markets at two cents per pound.

"I hatched about five hundred thousand trout last season, and sold about five hundred thousand impregnated trout spawn. Those who fol'owed my directions hatched a fair proportion. I send the spawn to any part of the United States, by express, and have sent them to the Rocky Mountains by mail and express. The young fish can be sent almost any distance, if sent in January or February. In hot weather they do not carry well. I have trout growing in almost every State in the Union. All the spring streams in the country can be stocked with trout. I spent two weeks on the Hudson River and hatched a few shad, but I cannot do anything without legislation."

He gives minute directions for the care of the ova of trout, the mode of packing for transportation, and the proper management in hatching. He is able to send the eggs to any part of the country, or to Europe, without loss, packing in moss within a tin bucket, which is placed in another vessel, with sawdust between them to guard against sudden changes of temperature.

In January, 1869, a quantity of impregnated spawn, put up at his establishment, was sent by Mr. Roosevelt to Frank Buckland, the wellknown naturalist and British superintendent of fisheries. They were packed in moss in a can, which was placed in a larger can, the space between being filled with sawdust, and forwarded in the ice room of the steamer City of Baltimore. The eggs were found in fine condition, with only one or two white or dead ones.

Mr. Green gives the following directions for handling the spawn: "Pick the moss carefully off from the top of the spawn. Then put the box in a pan of water and turn it nearly bottom-side up, and pick the moss out carefully. The spawn will sink to the bottom, and you can pick the moss out of the pan. If there is a little left it will do no harm. Then pour the spawn in your hatching-trough, by holding the edge of your pan under water, and place them, without touching the spawn, by agitating the water with the bearded end of a feather. The dead spawn will turn a milk-white color, and should be picked out. Your trough should be so arranged that the water will run in it about twelve feet per minute. The water should be filtered by running through gravel or cloth screens, to prevent the sediment from reaching the spawn. I run about one inch of water over my spawn, and if any sediment gets on them and is allowed to remain there long, it will surely kill them. Remove all sediment with the bearded end of a quill, by agitating the water, without touching the spawn.

"Large ponds with but little water get too warm in summer and too cold in winter for trout to do well. It is detrimental to have any other fish with trout. Any kind of fish or fish spawn is good for feed. The young should be fed twice per day, very slowly; if fed fast the feed sinks and befouls the trough, and the trout will sicken and die. If fed regularly and the trough kept clean, with a good change of water, and not kept too thick, they will live and do well. If neglected they will surely die. "The sun, sediment, rats, mice, snails, crawfish, and many water insects are death to spawn. My troughs are twenty-five feet long, and fifteen inches wide. The water that feeds each trough would go through a half-inch hole with a three-inch head. Use fine gravel that has no iron rust in it. My troughs are three inches higher at the head. The average temperature of the water is forty-five degrees, and the fish hatch in seventy days. Every degree colder or warmer will make about six days' difference in hatching. Trout hatch the soonest in warm water. The sac on their bellies sustains them for forty or forty-five days after hatching, then they need food.

"When the fish are hatched, raise the water in the troughs about four or five inches by putting on a piece of board of that width on every crosspiece, thus keeping the fish separate-about an equal number in each square. If you have a small stream of shallow water near the head of your pond, put a few in a place in the stream and pond, and they will take care of themselves better than you can. The object of distributing them is that they will get more food. All old streams and ponds have plenty of food for small trout and large, which you will find by examining the moss, sticks, and stones in your ponds and streams, as they are full of water insects.

"The fish, after hatching, should be fed twice daily for two or three months, then once a day-the grown fish once a day or oftener. For the young fish, liver should be scraped and chopped very fine, and mixed with water, to give it about the consistency of clotted blood. Toss his to the fish a little at a time, so that they can catch and devour it before it reaches the bottom of the trough; no more should be given than the fish will eat, because if any is left it will settle to the bottom and foul the water, and the fish will sicken and die. The fish may be fed on curds, fish offal, or other animal matter, provided it be small enough for them to swallow."

Trout breeding easy.-A family supply of trout may be attained with small expense and little labor by any intelligent owner of a brisk spring of never-failing cold water, if the location is so sheltered as to avoid the risk of overflow from surface drainage. Deep, narrow ponds in ravines protected from the sun's rays, and supplied by spring water through an inch pipe, may suffice for a few specimens, and serve to ainuse and instruct the amateur proprietor; a fountain capable of filling constantly a twoinch pipe will sustain a trout preserve which may prove a source of pleasure and profit; a still larger stream is, of course, desirable, and essential as well, if anything important is sought to be accomplished. There are many who desire to undertake a very simple experiment in pisciculture, content with small returns in the pleasure of providing a new and agreeable feature for their homesteads, and of adding a new luxury to their table fare. To such we recommend the following direc tions of Theodore Lyman, one of the commissioners of Massachusetts: "The simplest hatching apparatus (without a house at all, and one at command of anybody) is made as follows: Close below a spring-head dig a trench a foot wide, so that the whole water shall pass through it gently. Fit tightly into this trench a box, four feet long, and open above and at each end; the water will now flow through this. Close the upper end of the box with a layer of coarse sponge, and below this (down stream, that is) add two flannel strainers stretched across the box. Now the water will still flow, but will be filtered. Close the lower end of the box with a metallic gauze, (the bottom of an old sieve, painted, will do,) and add a movable cover on top. Now you have a closed box or trough, through which a stream of filtered spring water flows constantly. Take gravel, the size of peas, wash it till clean, and spread it one inch thick on the bottom of the box. On this gravel lay trout eggs, so that they do not lie on top of one another. Examine them daily to remove the dead ones, or any dirt, and to wash the filters when necessary. They will all hatch when they get ready. But, how to get these eggs! In October or November go to a trout brook and walk softly along those parts of it that are gravelly and have running water. Peep under the banks and the dead logs until you see a pair of trout lying close together, their heads to the current. With a hand-net, dexterously used, both may be captured, and transferred to a pail of water. The female is seen to be

the stouter; she has a less-projecting under-jaw, and her fins are not so red. Take her up tenderly,' and do not go poking a clumsy thumb into her gills. Pass the finger and thumb with a gentle pressure along the abdominal region, and, if the fish is 'ripe,' the eggs will flow out freely. They should be received in a pan of water. Put the female back; take out the male and press him in like manner, and allow the expressed milky fluid to fall into the same pan. Stir the water with the hand, cover it, and allow it to stand for half an hour. At the end of that time the eggs which had stuck fast to the sides will become free and roll about. Now gently spread the eggs on the gravel of the trough, and the primary work is done. Should the female not prove ripe, keep her a few days in a pool or spring-hole. The fish thus captured for breeders should not be set free, but kept in a suitable pool till the next season. Such a preserve may easily be made by digging out a place a dozen feet square and three feet deep, grating the inlet and outlet, and leading a stream of water through it. The breeding fish here kept will feed voraciously, and will eat refuse scraps of meat, insects, caterpillars, clotted milk, hasty pudding boiled with milk, and small minnows. Thus fed, once or twice a day, they grow rapidly, and a half-pound fish will get to a pound in a year. Meantime, the eggs are growing also, and in their way. After three or four weeks two dark specks appear on each egg, and these, when held to the light, are seen to be the eyes of the embryo, showing through the translucent shell. This is a good time to pack eggs for transportation, Take a tin box, the size and shape of a pint measure, collect also a good handful of peat moss, (Sphagnum,) and wash it clean. Lay a stratum of wet moss in the bottom of the box, and cover the same with a fold of the gauze called 'musquito bar.' On this gauze spread gently a single layer of eggs, and cover them with a second fold of musquito bar. Then put more moss, and another layer of eggs in like manner, and thus continue until the box is full. Put on a cover with a few holes in it, pack the tin in a case of sawdust, and the eggs are good for a month without opening. When they are unpacked take the moss off the top, then lift them out by the gauze, and place them in the hatching-trough. It will be found that they have developed almost as much in the wet moss as they would have done in the water. The tiny embryo may be seen jerking itself uneasily in its spherical prison; a movement that continues to increase until, after two or three months from impregnation, (according to the temperature of the water,) the crea ture bursts its shell and appears in all its grandeur, looking, to say the truth, more like a spiritual polliwog than a real salmonide. This polliwog's character arises from the great yolk sac, or, rather call it, havresac, for it bears the thirty days' rations of this recruit. All that time he lies still without foraging. But thereafter we must issue to him, for now he appears as a genteel minnow, with bars on his sides. Twice or thrice a day a little clotted milk, rubbed very fine in water, must be put in the trough, and the fry may be seen eagerly to swallow the floating particles. With enough food, room, and water they will grow fast, and will take larger and larger morsels. At a year old they may very well weigh four ounces, though they may be somewhat larger or much smaller, according to their treatment. Their increase will depend on depth of water, and quantity and variety of food."

Prizes for fish-rearing.-The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture has offered two prizes, one of three hundred dollars and one of two hundred dollars, for the best two establishments for the culture of food-fishes in Massachusetts. The awards will be made March 1, 1872, and are to be determined by a consideration of the number of

species cultivated, the number and condition of individuals, the number of eggs hatched and young reared, and the neatness and economy of the establishment, and the excellence of the fixtures.

Area for fish-farming.-Few realize the extent of inland water in which fish culture can aid in the enlargement of food production. In the State of New York, for example, the area of lakes is nearly half a million acres, (466,457,) the coast line 270 miles, and the number of lakes 647. Of the larger, Cayuga is 35 miles long; Seneca, 35; Oneida, 20; Otsego, 20; Chautauqua, 18; Crooked, 18; Canandaigua, 16; Skaneateles, 16; Owasco, 12; Hemlock, 8; Honeoye, 5, and Conesus, 5. These waters are ample for the annual production of edible fish to the value of many millions of dollars, sufficient to aid materially in supplying subsistence to the dense population of the State of New York.

As New York is thus made to illustrate the extent of inland waters, without reference to the chain of inland seas stretching westward to Minnesota, the seaboard bays and estuaries of Maryland and Virginia, with many hundreds of miles of coast line, may serve to show how vast an area of tide-water is accessible for fish-producing and fish-catching purposes.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE BY STATE ACTION.

As early as 1856 a commission upon pisciculture was authorized in Massachusetts, which resulted in a few experiments and a report. In April, 1865, upon remonstrance of New Hampshire and Vermont. against preventing migration of fishes by high dams on the Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers, the legislature appointed two commissioners, Theodore Lyman and Alfred A. Reed, to investigate the question. In December of the same year these commissioners reported to the gover nor and council, and in May, 1866, the legislature provided for the ap pointment of two commissioners for five years to carry out a general plan for opening the above rivers to the passage of shad and salmon over the dams. Mr. Lyman was again appointed, and Alfred R. Field was associated with him. In December, 1866, they were able to report the finishing of the Merrimack fishways, and the opening of the New Hampshire section of the river by the authorities of that State. The powers of the commissioners were enlarged in 1867, and they entered at once upon a general examination of the fishways, and commenced restocking the waters of the State. In June, 1868, a question having arisen relative to the liability of the proprietors of the Holyoke dam for the construction of a fishway, an appropriation of twelve thousand dol lars was made for such improvement. The appropriations of the Massachusetts legislature in aid of fish culture for a single year have amounted to thirty thousand dollars.

A recent communication from Theodore Lyman, president of the Massachusetts commission, reports the progress of their official operations, and announces their success in opening several rivers, especially the Merrimack. The Lawrence fishway over the high dam at that place has been a difficult one, both from its height and the necessity of great strength as a protection against ice. Its cost has exceeded eight thousand dollars, and while it carries the fish over in its present condition, some projected improvements will render it an undoubted success. The commission has stocked ponds with black bass, and bred salmon, trout, lake trout, (Salmo toma,) and land-locked salmon (S. Gloveri;) distrib uted many millions of shad spawn, but failed in efforts to obtain that of the white fish, (Coregonus alba,) the Belgrade smelt, and the wall-eyed pike, (Lucio perca.)