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AN ADDRESS

—-oN—

Pisa CULLUR

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

LEGISLATURE OF VERMONT,

On Tuesday Evening, November 12th, 1872.

—BY—

MIDDLETON GOLDSMITH, M.D.

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RUTLAND:
TUTTLE & CO., PRINTERS.

1872
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AN ADDRESS

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Eien CULT Pe.

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

LEGISLATURE OF VERMONT,

On Tuesday Evening, November 12th, 1872.

=—By=

MIDDLETON GOLDSMITH, M. D.

RUTLAND:
TUTTLE & CO., PRINTERS.
1872.
JOINT RESOLUTION INVITING DR. MIDDLETON
GOLDSMITH TO DELIVER AN ADDRESS ON THE
SUBJECT OF “FISHERIES OF VERMONT”:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That
Dr. Middleton Goldsmith, of Rutland, be invited to deliver an
address, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, on the sub-
ject of the Fisheries of Vermont, at such day as may suit his con-

venience.
Franxitn Farrpanxs, Speaker of the House.

L. G. Hincxtey, President, pro tem., of the Senate.

 

STATE OF VERMONT.

Orrice or SecretTary oF Strats;
Montreizr, Noy. 11th, 1872.
A true copy of the original.

Witness my hand and official seal, date above written.

[z. s.] Grores Nicuots, Secretary of State.

 

STATE OF VERMONT.

Orricre or Secretary or Sratze, }
Montrerier, Nov. 11th, 1872.

Prof. M. Gorpsmits, Rutland,—

My Dear Sir ; Thave the honor to transmit to your
address the accompanying Joint Resolution, adopted by the General
Assembly of this State, on the 9th inst.

Trusting that you may be pleased ’to comply with the invitation

extended, I am,
Yours, very truly,

Grorce Nicuors, Secretary.
P. 8.—The Hall will be occupied on the evenings of the 13th

and 14th insts. G@. N.
iv

Rortanp, Vr., Nov. 12th, 1872.
Georce Nicuots, Secretary of State,—

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
communication of yesterday, inclosing a Joint Resolution of the
Legislature, inviting me to deliver, in the Hall of the House of
Representatives, an address on the subject of the Fisheries of Ver-
mont, at such time as may suit my convenience.

In reply, I have to state I shall ask to be heard to-morrow even-
ing, Tuesday, the 12th.
Very respectfully,
M. Gotpsanta, Com’r of Fisheries.

 

STATE OF YERMONT.
SECRETARY OF SENATE'S OFFICE,
Monrpeier, Nov. 14, 1872.
Dr. M. Gotpsmrx, Rutland,—

Dear Sir: Agreeably to a Joint Resolution of the Gen- -
eral Assembly, I write you asking a copy of your address on “ Fish
Culture,” delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives,
on Tuesday evening, Nov. 12th, for publication.

Hoping that you will comply with the request of the Legislature
at your early convenience, I am, Sir,
Respectfully yours,
M. B. Carpenter, Sec’y of the Senate.

Rurtranp, Vr., Nov. 15th, 1872.
M. B. Carpenter, Secretary of the Senate,—
Sir ; I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your communication of the 15th inst., requesting for publication a
copy of the address delivered in the Hall of the House of Repre-
sentatives, on Tuesday, Nov. 12th. Herein you will find inclosed
a paper containing the substance of the address I had the honor to
make before the Legislature on the occasion above mentioned.
Very respectfully,
M. Gotpsuitu, Com’r of Fisheries.
ADDRESS.

a, eo

GENTLEMEN :—

I am here to-night, by your direction, to lay before
you something of the facts which we, the Commissioners
of Fisheries, have gathered in regard to the fisheries of
Vermont, as well as those facts which bear some relation
to the usual and necessary regulations of fisheries.

The following is a succinct statement of the nature of
your fisheries at the present time, and of the prospective
changes and modifications entertained by your Commis-
sioners. We have no data sufficient for any reliable
computation of the amount or value of the production
of your fisheries, except what will appear in the progress
of what I shall have to say to you to-night.

From Lake Champlain we send to market white fish in
six varieties, catfish, ling, bull-heads, buffalo, pike-perch,
pike, muskalonge, black bass, yellow perch, sunfish, silver

cel, mullet, smelt and an occasional salmon trout. Our
smaller lakes yield speckled or brook trout, salmon trout,
pike, pickerel, bull-heads, yellow perch, rock bass, suckers
and black bass. Our large streams yield a few brook trout,
pickerel, yellow perch and suckers. Our smaller streams
yield trout, if anything worth the catching,

We have in our waters only one sea going fish, the
smelt in Lake Champlain. The only other sea going
2 FISH CULTURE.

fish that have been found in any of our waters are salmon
and shad.

The migratory fishes which can be added to our present
list, are salmon, shad, and'probably herring and sea trout.
One of our smaller lakes contains a large quantity of one
of the smaller kinds of white fish—several others, the eel.

The new fresh water fishes which, from our present
information, it is desirable to introduce into localities fit
for their multiplication and growth, are the Otsego bass,
the Sebago salmon and the white perch of the Ohio.

The kinds now found in some of our waters which, we
think, should be more extensively disseminated, are the
white fish, salmon trout, black bass, pike-perch and silver
eels.

The kinds of fish which especially need protection, are
brook trout, salmon trout, pike-perch (called Lake Cham-
plain pike), black bass, white fish and suckers, not be-
cause of the value of the last named for food tor men,
but for food for valuable fishes.

If each inhabitant of the State should eat one pound
of fish per week, at the present average price, the annual
cost would be one million nine hundred and eighty thou-
sand dollars. It is safe to say that the present consump-
tion is one million, most of which goes out of the State.
It is perfectly sate to say that wise laws, properly enforced,
would afford this same amount of food at one-half the
cost, and keep most of the money at home. In other
words, the most cautious estimate would reckon by this
means a certain saving to the people of the State at least
$500,000 annually.

More than this, it is possible not only to diminish’
the cost, but in so doing to increase the consumption
FISH CULTURE. 3

to the degree that in place of being a simple luxury,
seldom seen except upon the table of the well to do citi-
zen, fish-food may be had by the poor as well. Still
further, in place of being brought, as it is now, chiefly
from Canada or from Boston, fish-food may be had almost
at each man’s door. Yet, still further, it is possible to
supplant codfish and hake with salmon and shad, and had-
dock and mackerel with trout and white fish.

As very few persons, who have not investigated the
matter, are aware of the economic value of fisheries in
inland lakes and streams, allow me to present a few facts
in illustration of these values. I find them recorded in
“ Bertram’s Harvest of the Sea.” They are quoted from
the Report of the British Commissioners of Fisheries.
The fisheries of the river Tweed, and that before figh
culture had materially improved them, were rented at
one time for $100,000. Those at Speymouth, on the
river Spey, for $65,000. Those on the Tay for $85,000.
Two rivers owned by the Duke of Sutherland, one six
‘miles and the other eight miles long, rent for $50,000.
These are salmon fisheries; and I have cited these exam-
ples because the salmon is a kind of fish the introduction
of which into our waters is practicable, and in your wis-
dom may become the ward of your legislation; and
because, as will be seen hereafter, properties as valuable
as these; properties of as handsome rental as these,—are
possible to us, by the exercise of the necessary skill and
liberality.

I may state further, as some illustration of the wealth
producing function of the Scottish salmon fisheries (for
in the instances just mentioned the rental of the several
rivers is but the premium paid by fishermen for the privi-
4 FISH CULTURE.

lege of catching salmon in the streams), that the value of
the salmon sent to the London market alone,—and this
makes no account of those consumed in Scotland, or sent
to Ireland and the great interior towns and cities of
England—is, reckoning the value at a price per pound
twenty per cent. less than that which obtains in this State,
for the fifteen years inclusive from 1850 to 1865, eight
million six hundred and eighty-nine theusand five hun-
dred dollars ($8,689,500).

Now Vermont has quite a number of streams fit for
the production of salmon. Indeed, I am informed that
Scotland has not a single river equal to the Connecticut,
if you include its tributaries. Waiving the consideration
of the fact that within quite a recent period a number of
streams in Europe have been stocked which had never
before been known to have salmon in them, Vermont
has several important streams fit for producing salmon—
fit because, all unchanged in the quality and quantity of
water as they are now, they once produced salmon in the
greatest abundance. Dr. Williams, in his history of Ver--
mont, states that in his time they were abundant in most
of the large streams of Vermont. Thompson reiterates
the declaration. They were found in the Connecticut and
its tributaries in such abundance that the hired men ia the
region of these waters were wont to make a stipulation,
in their contracts for service, that they should be obliged
to eat salmon but twice a week.

This fish once came in great numbers into Lake Cham-
plain, and from it ascended all the penetrable rivers
emptying into this body of water. The late Mr. Foquet
of Plattsburg once told me that when he was a boy he
had often seen the salmon approaching the river at Platts-
FISH CULTURE. 5

burg in such quantities that the line of their movement
shoreward could be seen for some distance out on the
lake, and that they were so abundant that the price at
the fisheries did not exceed twenty-five cents a bushel
basket. We get reliable accounts of the abundance of
salmon in the Lamoille and Winooski.

If a man should appear before you to-night—one in
whose intelligence and veracity you had unbounded con-
fidence—and he should tell you that if you would pro-
vide a pathway through the confines of the State—that
if you would only bridge over the impassable streams,
every calf at weaning time turned loose upon the high-
way would go away to the distant pastures of the western
wilds, and return, each to his owner’s door, a full grown
3-year old, fat and ready for the butcher, I take it
another spring time would hardly clothe our forests ere
every stream would be bridged and every pathway
smoothed for this bovine migration. Your Commission-
ers tell you to-night that, with a like pathway provided for
migratory fishes, each salmon spawn, worth five cents
weaned, will come back in two years worth $8, and that .
each shad hatchling, costing less than a cent, will come
back in three years a full grown fish worth twenty-five
cents. More, they will tell you that acres upon acres of
your barren wastes may be transformed into teeming har-
vest fields, yielding an annual income, and that without
labor, which exceeds the richest acres of farming land.
More than this, they tell you to-night that this not only
can be done, but that it has been done elsewhere, and can
be done in Vermont as well.

Already legislation has so increased the yield of shad in
the Connecticut, and some other rivers, that the price has

2
6 FISH CULTURE.

receded at the fisheries from 40 cents to 4 cents apiece.
Experiments on some of the British rivers have clearly
demonstrated that analogous changes can be made, and
have been made, in the production of shad and herring.

The management of fisheries concerns two great classes
—those which live permanently in our waters, and those
which visit them periodically.

Allow me, first, to draw your attention to the nature,
habits and breeding waters of the salmon—and that, as a
type of the migratory fishes—most of the conditions
making one of them possible in our waters being the
conditions for them all.

Almost all the rivers ia Vermont present the necessary
conditions for the culture of the salmon. It needs pure
water, streams of moderate size, having in their course
deep pools and clean, fine gravel beds. For it must be
remembered that this fish comes to us from the sea simply
to deposit its spawn in localities favorable to the hatching
of the eggs and the rearing of the young. When the
spawn is deposited, the old fish returns again to the sea,
. where in the deep waters of the North Atlantic it finds
in countless myriads the species upon which it feeds.
The whole growth of the fish, except during that of the
first year, is at the expense of no- fish-food found in our
waters. An hundred thousand salmon in Onion River
would consume no appreciable quantity of food, nor would
they'diminish in any sensible degree the quantum of fish
of other varieties inhabiting the stream. A salmon stream
stocked with trout yields as many trout as if there were
no salmon in it.

To stock a river suitable for salmon with it, it is neces-
sary only to hatch the salmon eggs in the stream. The
FISH CULTURE. 7

young fish remain for a season where they were hatched,
living upon larvee and insects like the trout. When they
have arrived at about the size of a large brook shiner
they go down to the sea, and, there being no insurmount-
able dam or fall, they come back again every year, grow-
ing larger and larger with each season. By the third
year they are heavy fish. At even the first return they
will weigh 5 lbs. and more. Once introduced, they will
reproduce themselves in great abundance, provided only
that they are not by prodigal fishing ruthlessly destroyed.
The distance which both shad and salmon will travel to
reach their spawning grounds is marvelous. Fifteen
hundred miles away from the sea they sometimes go.
While the salmon seeks clear streams and shallow waters
with gravelly bottoms (for this fish deposits its spawn
like trout, in holes dug in the gravel, and covered when
spawned in), the shad seeks still waters and does not dig
holes or cover its eggs. Nor are they able to leap over
considerable obstructions, as salmon are; therefore they
have been found heretofore in Vermont only in the Con-
necticut, and in that below the falls at Bellows Falls.

Smelt and herring spawn like the shad, but will pass
more difficult obstructions..

Shad, smelt and salmon can come into Lake Cham-
plain. There is now no obstruction to their passage; the
Canadian authorities promise to keep the passage free,
and to do, at the rapids of the Richelieu, whatever is
necessary to improve or maintain that passage.

But no shad or salmon can come above Holyoke dam,
on the Connecticut River, by reason of the dam; and
until fish-ways are provided for this dam nothing can be
done in this State which will restock the tributaries of
8 FISH CULTURE.

the river or the river itself, above Holyoke, with any sea
going fish.*

It will be seen from the foregoing considerations that
if the Legislature desires the restocking of any of its
rivers with migratory fish, it will be necessary to open to
them the channels of migration; and of course it is for
them to say how this shall be done. Wherever there is a
fall to be surmounted, a fall too high at present for fish to
scale, ladders must be provided. It would seem,—and
this has appeared to be the view taken of it by those
legislatures which have taken the matter in hand,—that
where the obstacles are natural obstacles, the State should
be at the expense of building fish-ways, but that where
the obstacles are artificial, those constructing them should
be obliged to construct the fish-ways; and, therefore, I
have respectfully to suggest that this Legislature will
direct that wherever there are dams, or other artificial
obstructions to the passage of migratory fish, the builders
of such dam or obstructions shall build the necessary fish-
ways, when called upon by the fish commissioners to do
it, and that the necessary appropriations be made for
constructing such fish-ways over natural obstructions in
such streams, open to the sea, as the commissioners may
select for stocking with shad or salmon.

In regard to stocking ponds and lakes and streams
which are non-navigable, it will be necessary for the judi-

 

* IT was asked, on the occasion of the delivery of this address, how it
was known that salmon and other fishes always return to the streams in
which they were hatched. It was finally determined in this way: ‘ At
some of the hatching establishments, like that at Stromontfield,a number
of the young salmon ready to go down to the sea were marked in various
ways—some by cutting off the little fin on the back, some by inserting
little gold or silver rings into their fins. Those having these marks
returned in diminished numbers (for only a certain proportion of all
turned loose escaped destruction from various causes) to the streams in
which they were hatched, and none were ever caught with these marks in
any other stream.
FISH CULTURE. 9

ciary or the Legislature initially to determine the boundary
between public and personal rights and property. The
following questions are to be solved: What acts are nec-
essary to be done to transform the fish, in a pond sur-
rounded with land owned by one individual,—a pond or
lake embraced within the original survey,—from their
original condition of fere nature,—liable to capture ac-
cording to constitutional provision—into domesticated
animals and private property? The same question per-
tains to all non-navigable streams, so far as those streams
are bounded by lands on both sides owned by one indi-
vidual. Do the owners of land on Lake Champlain hold
any fishing rights in the waters bordering their lands ?
“Assuming that the State has an undoubted right to
regulate and control fisheries and fishing within her
boundaries, it is well to glance for a moment at the possi-
bilities in the matter of fish culture in this direction.
The limit of the production in any given waters is the
food for fishes existing in or producible in the given
waters. For present issues, it is sufficient to divide our
fishes into those which are flesh and those which are vege-
table eaters. Then again, of these there are some which
for various reasons affect or flourish best in deep, and
others, again, flourish best in shallow waters. Lakes with
bold shores and deep waters are best fitted for certain kinds
of fishes, and lakes with level shores and shallow, reedy
waters are best adapted to certain other kinds. Temper-
ature, however, comes in to qualify these conditions.
Ponds stocked with predatory fishes are stocked on the
Kilkenny cat principle. They prey upon one another.
But ponds stocked with vegetable eaters, as well as flesh
eaters, are vastly more prolific. The grass feeding fishes
10 FISH CULTURE.

become the food of the predatory. Now it so happens
that some of the grass eaters are our best table fish, as,
for example, the white fish in their several varieties.
Hence a wise policy is that which seeks to establish in
each pond those varieties which are, in the first place,
best adapted to the nature of the pond, its depth, temper-
ature and food supply; and which, from their habits of
life, are mutually intér-dependent.

Thus, for illustration, a lake like Lake Dunmore, con-
taining salmon trout and having deep waters, might be
also stocked with some of the smaller varieties of white
fish. The result would be that the white fish would grow
. in such abundance as to yield annually tons of food in
their own proper persons, and by reason of affording from
their numbers additional food for the trout already exist-
ing, the trout, from being scarce, would ih 3timed;become
exceedingly abundant. To put black: bass):pila¢,-or any
other predatory fish into such a lake wduldorilyihave the
effect of diminishing the quantum of troutdaiith@u thd
creasing the aggregate amount of fish; vandoth so-doing
would only deteriorate the quality of thezdish oproduded,
in so far as the bass and pike, inferior fishes,-supplanted
the trout, a superior fish. wot PR

It will be seen from this that the‘laws necessary for
fish culture of one Jake are not those best for another,
and that in order that the Legislature should be able to
legislate intelligently with regard to the choice of fishes
to be introduced into various waters, a visit to each lake
would be required, as well as a thorough acquaintance
with the whole subject of fish culture. Hence it would
seem to be advisable to remit this part of the matter to
the discretion of the Commissioners of Fisheries.
FISH CULTURE. 11

For the purpose of stocking habitable waters with
fishes suited to the waters, recourse is now most economi-
cally had to the process of collecting, fecundating the
eggs of the various desired kinds, incubating them to the
degree most favorable for transportation, and hatching
them in the waters the fish are intended to inhabit. For
this purpose central establishments, under skilled supervi-
sion, are required. Whether this State will choose to have
one of her own, or purchase the necessary ova from hatch-
ing establishments already erected, is a mere economic
question.

Another matter to be determined is the rights of own-
ers of lands on Lake Champlain and on the Connecticut
in the fisheries adjacent to their lands. If the fishermen
employing nets along the shores of Lake Champlain
would simply save the spawn of the fishes they take at
spawning time, impregnate it, and place the eggs thus
secured in conditions favorable to the hatching of the
eggs, the fishing grounds thus stocked with spawn would
soon teem with fish. As it now is, there are no adequate
personal motives operating upon individual fishermen.
For they say, We have no exclusive right to the fisheries
at any given place; if we had, or if we could legally
acquire them, we should at once and always thus utilize
the spawn, which, in the present state of things, goes to
absolute waste. It seems probable that the establishment
of riparian rights by the State, vested in adjoining land
owners, or in the State itself, would tend largely to in-
crease the fish supply, provided the fishing was controlled
and regulated by competent authority.

The regulation of the fisheries is a sine qua non. One
great evil to be prevented is ‘the wanton or wasteful de-
12 FISH CULTURE.

struction of fish at certain seasons. An instance of this
pernicious practice is found in the pike fisheries in Lake
Champlain in the early spring. The pike, during the
months of March and April, seeks, for the purpose of
spawning, the shallower parts of the lake, and the streams
running into it, in such immense quantities, and are taken
in such vast numbers, that they cannot be disposed of,
for the reason that the supply is much greater than the
demand. That which is true of pike is true also of other
fishes, so that, in practical effect, the present modes of
fishing,—while they tend to the gradual decrease of the
finer sorts, gluts the market at those seasons in which fish
are kept with difficulty, and therefore will not bear distant
transportation,—tend in the same degree to produce great
scarcity during all the other seasons of the year.

In order, therefore, to keep up our present supply, and
especially if we desire to increase it, it will become nec-
essary to frame such laws and regulations as will prevent
this wholesale destruction, and will maintain for each
tribe a sufficient close time during the spawning season
as will secure the spawning of a number of eggs sufficient
to secure the abundant reproduction of all the desirable
varieties.

Tn circumstances in which a close time, from economic
considerations, as in shad fisheries, may not’ be desirable,
such close time may be compensated by the artificial hatch-
ing in situ. This is done in some measure, and success-
fully, in the Connecticut and Hudson Rivers. And it is
done thus: At certain points, which for obvious reasons
are at the head of the shad waters, men are stationed, at
the spawning season, with nets and seines, who capture
the mature fish, and, gathering the spawn, hatch out the
FISH CULTURE. 13

millions of young shad sufficient to produce the quantity
of shad required by the commercial necessities of those
rivers. The cost of these establishments may be paid by
the State out of the public treasury, or by a royalty
gathered from the fisheries. The cost of such establish-
ments is almost nominal, since all of the fish caught are
as well fitted for the market after being used for the
purposes of propagation, as they would have been had
they been used for no such purpose. Indeed, not more
than 10 per cent. of the fish taken in any one draught of
the seines are ripe. The sale of the fish goes a great way
towards the whole expenditure.

Inasmuch as the raising of the fish in private preserves
is fast coming, in this State, to be a settled branch of
industry, promising to those who pursue it, to be a
profitable branch of industry, it would seem to be well
for the State to pass such laws as will favor, protect and
foster this industrial measure. It so happens that in this,
as in most matters to be learned, demonstration is a more
availabie teacher than literature can ever be. A State
hatching establishment, involving, as it does, breeding as
well, situated at some central point, like Montpelier or
Rutland, would do more forthe rapid dissemination of a
knowledge of the best methods than all the reports which
could possibly be scattered through the State. Beside,
at such an institution, there could be determined by skilled
experiment all these economic questions as yet but poorly
determined, and which lie at the bottom of the whole
matter of this branch of fish culture. What is the cost
of a pound of trout expressed in pounds flesh? What

3
14 FISH CULTURE.

are the most available sources of fish-food? How can
worthless animal matter best be utilized in the feeding of
domesticated fishes? What kinds of fishes can be most
economically reared? These and many kindred questions
must be answered hefore fish husbandry can be success-
fully established as a domestic industry. No one is so
well able to do this as the State. No experiments
undertaken by individuals would carry with them the
authentic character of those performed under the sanction
of the commonwealth. :

Besides, the present state of science of fish culture
indicates that we may have much to gain by introducing
new varieties’ not noted to our waters. The measures
necessary to bring this about can be carried out success-
fully by no one but the State.

It so happens that the expense involved in doing all
the State can do, is exceedingly small in comparison with
what may be effected by it.

The preservation of trout in our mountain streams
implies much more than the mere increase of food or
revenue from their exportation. Trout fishing is a trea-
sured recreation. The opportunities for its practice brings
hundreds of the residents of cities to enjoy it—to fill our
hotels—to ride upon our railways—to patronize our
livery stables, to consume and make home markets for
our agricultural products. To learn our industries, our
mines, our forests, our manufactories, and often to invest
in them. To learn our ways and people, to breathe in
health and elastic vigor with our mountain air; to feast
their eyes on our grand old hills, clad in vernal green.

It helps to lure our children back to us for a season,
FISH CULTURE. 15

in the summer time ; back from the din and whirl of busy
cities; back to the peaceful hearths of our quiet home-
steads, where, upon the altars of their fathers’ homes,
they renew again the covenants of love and brotherhood.
Surely, in even this workaday world, this is worth some-
thing. ,

It would seem that, in view of the preservation and
perpetuation, ownership might be the most effectual
means. While trout are, in some sense, everybody's.
property, no one is especially interested in their preserva-
tion. Ifa hunter falls in with a flock of wild turkeys,
he will shoot if he can every one—not leaving a single
hen or gobbler, and this whether he needs them or not,
whether he can eat them or not—in part from that
inherent love of slaughter which taints our blood—in part
from the vanity of killing largely of game. From what-
ever cause he kills themall. Now, if he owned the flock,
whether he loved roast turkey or not, he would kill them
as they came into condition, and would be sure to save a
gobbler and a hen or two. It would hardly be wise
legislation, having in view the largest production of
mutton, to declare all sheep fere nature—wild animals, as
the law now holds trout and other fish to be. Rather
legislation should seek to confirm ownership, and provide
severe penalties for killing anybody’s sheep except one’s
own. That which seems to be wisdom in the one case
may probably be wisdom in the other. At all events, the
present laws for the preservation of trout are wholly
inadequate. For, as nobody owns them, there is no sense
of wrong doing in destroying them in the juvenile mind.
And I need not remind my hearers that it is somewhat
16 FISH CULTURE.

difficult to enforce a law which does not appeal to the
moral sense of the people. In most foreign countries the
fish, living in a stream running through occupied lands,
are held to be the landlord’s private property, as much as
the grass he never sowed, or the trees he never planted.
So that every man or boy who poaches upon his neighbor’s
streams knows that he is a thief—feels that he is a thief,
and is punished as a thief. In such countries the streams
are productive properties. Productive to the owner in fish
or in rental—productive to the commonwealth in that,
being husbanded and protected against indiscriminate
slaughter, they add to the food of the people. I am
clearly of the opinion that no legislation will be effectual
in making trout abundant in our streams, save that which
makes them in certain waters and on certain conditions
private property, and as such protects them.

t
Cornell University Library

address on fish culture, delivered be