the young men and women of the state every facility for a thorough and accomplished education. The University of Wisconsin, supported as it is by liberal and bountiful appropriations by the state, is fast becoming one of the leading institutions of learning in the United States; and I know of no reason why this institution may not in the near future be equal to any institution of learning in the world. Under the liberal patronage of the state, the sons and daughters of Wisconsin are, and are to be, forever hereafter, I hope, educated here free of expense. Thus, and in many ways I cannot mention, the people of Wisconsin have kept pace with the most advanced civilization. Everything has been done that could be done by enterprise, energy and industry to make Wisconsin what it pre-eminently is, one of the richest and most prosperous communities in the world. Added to our natural and unrivalled. means of transportation throughout the state and abroad, by the water communications to which I have already referred, Wisconsin has her full share of railroad facilities. It would be a waste of time to attempt to enumerate the advantages of Wisconsin; it it sufficient to say that she has every advantage which a good gov ernment, a rich soil and a favored climate can give to a thrifty, industrious, intelligent people. All of these advantages have been grandly improved, until Wisconsin has become a great and prosperous commonwealth.

For all of these manifold blessings the people of the state are in great part indebted to you gentlemen who organized the territory and founded the state.

I hope these meetings may be continued from year to year, that they may increase in interest as the numbers entitled to be here diminish. Each recurring meeting, I am sure, will in many respects be sadder and sadder for those who come, until finally when the last of this noble band of pioneer patriots and public benefactors, enfeebled by age, shall come with trembling steps, and with conflicting feelings of pleasure and pain - pain that he sees no more the noble forms and familiar faces of those who helped to lay the foundation of this grand commonwealth; pleasure at the joyful greeting he will be sure to receive from the grateful people he so faithfully served. When this time comes,

as it surely will come, I bespeak for this survivor, whoever he may be, a reception and a welcome that shall forever make that day memorable in the history of Wisconsin.

FISH FARMING.

Progress of Pisciculture in Wisconsin and the United States With much Historical Information about the Business - The operations of the different Nations.

Until a comparatively recent period, the rivers of Europe and of the United States, particularly the northern and eastern states, fairly swarmed with salmon, and the brooks and streams everywhere were alive with trout. The food, at once wholesome, appetizing and cheap, was within the reach of the poorest; but now, what was once one of the commonest and most easily attainable necessities of the poor has become an expensive luxury for the well-to-do and rich. Salmon and trout are the most costly fish in the market, and shad are smaller, scarcer and higher priced. from year to year.

What has become of the fish, particularly the salmon and the trout? Why have salmon, once so cheap and plentiful, deserted the rivers of New England and the north? The only sources of supply for years have been the Kennebec river, in Maine, the rivers of the British provinces, and quite recently those of California; and fish brought on ice from remote regions, with impaired flavor and enhanced price, commands in the eastern markets from twenty cents to two dollars a pound, according to the season and supply. Undoubtedly the industries of the country are mainly responsible for driving away the salmon. A few years ago the beautifully clear waters of the Merrimac river, running from New Hampshire through Massachusetts and the Atlantic ocean, were filled with salmon of from nine to twelve pounds in weight; but on that river, as on other rivers, the dams and factories, and the discharges from mills, tan yards, sewers and dye houses, have forced the fish to

SEEK PURE STREAMS.

Cities, too, with their sewerage and poisonous outpourings from gas-houses, are fatal to salmon, though the shad seem to survive these evils long enough to reach their spawning grounds and return to the sea. Happily, however, means are now in operation which will go far to remedy some of these evils, and to re-stock long deserted rivers with the fish that once made these rivers their favorite resorts.

Obviously, the first means to attain the desired end is to supply "ladders," which is effectually done so that shad and salmon can ascend the dams; and next, to prevent or limit the erection on fish-bearing streams of print-works, dye-houses, gas-works, paper-mills or other establishments whose discharges may poison the water. But best of all is the process of supplying perfectly clear and unobjectionable lakes, ponds and streams with stocks of such fish as salmon, bass, trout, shad, etc., which is now ef fected to such an extent that, in a few years, the choicest varieties of fish will be among the cheapest as well as most desirable meats in our markets. This is done by what is variously called fish culture, fish-farming and artificial fish-breeding.

ANCIENT FISH CULTURE.

un

Modern fish culture is the recovery, or re-discovery of a long lost art. The Chinese, who claim the origination ages ago of every discovery-who have known silk culture, printing, engraving, gun-powder, and many other things for centuries derstood at a very ancient period the process, not only of preserving, but of artificially breeding in the remote and interior regions of their vast empire the fish so necessary to the support of an enormous population living almost entirely upon fish and rice. The ancient Romans, if they did not know how to breed fish, certainly understood the art of preserving them — that is, of protecting the spawn and young fish from the ravages of the older fish, reptiles, rats and birds, which feed upon them, and of bringing the fish to maturity for the table or for breeding. It is a question whether the Chinese or the Romans understood the process of fecundating the ova; but if they only carefully col

lected, preserved and hatched the impregnated ova, which they did with entire success, they well knew what is really the most important part of fish culture. For when it is considered that of the thousands of eggs from a single fish of the trout and shad kind, as naturally spawned, only a very small portion comes to maturity, while the great bulk is devoured or washed away; and of what is hatched, that the young fish, especially salmon and trout, have numerous enemies, including their unnatural progenitors, which devour them by thousands- it is indeed

A VALUABLE DISCOVERY

which insures the hatching of from ninety-five per cent. of the entire number of eggs by artificial means, and by measures which insure the safety of the ova and the young. The Chinese and Romans also made the important discovery that fish readily adapt themselves to new localities; that they may be introduced in entirely new waters; that salt-water fish may be bred and brought to perfection in fresh water; that the ova, properly packed, may be transported great distances; and other vital matters pertaining to successful fish culture in our own day. Thus, at present, deserted streams are not only restocked with ova from remote rivers, but fish of different kinds are introduced in sections where they never bred naturally; pickerel have been put into ponds in Western Massachusetts; pike from the northern lakes have been brought to Connecticut; and it is confidently expected that choice foreign fish like the turbot, the Danube salmon (which has been bred in Europe to its full weight of two hundred pounds), and other varieties soon will be imported and reared in the United States. But what was known to the Romans was lost to Europe, and for centuries the Chinese, who cut themselves off from communication with the rest of the world, kept to themselves the secrets of the art of successful fish farming.

RECOVERY OF THE ART.

There are many claimants to the honor of the re-discovery of the art. It was practiced in France in the fourteenth century. All works on pisciculture give credit to Pinchon, a monk of

Reone, for "inventing " a mode of hatching fish, similar to the modern process, but the art of artificially impregnating eggs was lost with his death. His works, important as they were, literally followed him, and it was not until the eighteenth century that the art, twice lost, was once more re-discovered. Jacobi, of Hanover, after years of experiment, made public, in 1763, his plan for fish breeding- the same in principle as that now pursued. His fish farm, established with assistance from the government, was soon able, not only to supply the home market, but to export large quantities of fish to England and France.

EXPERIMENTS AND ESTABLISHMENTS ABROAD.

Experiments began in the salmon streams of Scotland in 1833, and in 1837 a few fish were artificially hatched, and were reared to the age of two years. But for what is known now of practical and profitable pisciculture, Europe and America are indebted to two French fishermen, Remy and Gehin, living near the head waters of the Moselle. They saw and deplored the constant diminution of the trout for which they fished, and which furnished their support. Pecuniary interest led them to watch, as they did carefully for three years, the manner of natural fecundation. Their first idea was to devise means to prevent the destruc tion of the ova and young fish, and their investigations in this direction led to the discovery, for the third time, of the process of artificial impregnation.

Their experiments, as early as 1832, resulted in the stocking or restocking of several rivers. Five years later their enterprise and its success was known to the French government. It was shown that the fish farm of these men had restocked the Moselle with salmon, trout and other fish, and that their establishment was bountifully supplied with ova and young fish ready for transfer to other streams. All Europe became interested in the subject. Jean Jacques Coste, of the French Academy, after personal investigation, suggested the undertaking of a great government establishment. Louis Napoleon, then president of the French republic, was willing to risk thirty thousand francs in the experiment; and the result was the soon celebrated fish farm at Huningue, on the Rhine.