Agawam River

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Agawam River 105 with the result that the fish arrive at the ponds in an exhausted condition. The stream once yielded as high as 5,000 barrels per season, and maintained an average of 1,500 until 1912, when the fishery was seriously affected by the dredging of the canal, which changed the location of its outlet. The stream has never recovered from the effect of this change, and during the last few years it has yielded only a small per cent of its former production. The average receipts from the sale of the privilege for the seventeen years between 1895 and 1912 has been $787.93, the highest price, $1,843.55, having been paid in 1893. This naturally productive stream has been heavily taxed by the one-year lease system, and has passed through a precarious stage of its existence during the dredging of the Cape Cod Canal. If the town of Bourne will ease the abrupt slope in certain parts of the stream, correct the defects in the present fishway, declare an immediate closed season in order to allow a good supply of alewives to reach the spawning grounds, and then lease the fishery for five-year periods, it can be brought back to its former position as one of the most productive streams in Massachusetts. AGAWAM RIVER. Agawam River, or Half Way Pond Stream, has its origin in Half Way Pond, and flows through Wareham and Plymouth for 9 miles into Buzzard's Bay. It is used for power and flooding cranberry bogs, receiving as a. tributary Maple Spring Brook from Spectacle Pond, and forming in its course Glen and Agawam ponds. The stream formerly received the un- treated trade waste of the New Bedford and Agawam Finishing Company, but in 1910 filter beds and an alkali reclaiming plant were installed, and the waste has since been treated before being emptied. However, the situation is not as satis- factory as if none entered the stream. The fish house is located at the lower end of Agawam Pond, on one arm of the Y formed by the stream from the two spillways. A 100-yard fishway, part of which is under- ground, leads to the millpond, passing over a 16-foot dam 106 with numerous 6-inch baffles. At the southern spillway the gates are so arranged that the person in charge of the fishway can regulate the flow of water for the catching pool. At Glen Pond the stream separates into two branches which enter the northeastern end of Agawam Pond. The western branch is used principally for cranberry bogs, and the eastern, or main stream, is blocked by a dam and spillway at the lower end of Glen Pond. A fishway in the form of a ditch 2 to 3 feet wide permits the alewives to pass into this pond. A recently constructed dam below Glen Pond is opened during the spring run. The majority of the alewives spawn in Glen Pond, and a small number in Spectacle Pond, which is con- nected with Agawam Mill Pond. Alewives are taken at East Wareham with dip nets, the catch ranging from 500 to 3,000 barrels. The fishery is sold at public auction, subject to certain restrictions, under the direction of a joint committee from the towns of Plymouth and Wareham. A few shad are taken each year and placed in the Agawam Mill Pond, this being one of the very few instances of an existing shad fishery. Between 1865 and 1913, a period of forty-nine years, the income from the fishery totaled $32,118.02, or an average of $655.47 per year, reaching the highest in 1892, when $1,352.50 was received by Wareham, the lowest in 1911, when only $55 was paid. The stream is a valuable asset to Wareham and Plymouth. In spite of numerous local controversies with the conflicting cranberry interests the towns have taken good care of the fishery, and if the lessees see that the proper number of spawn- ing alewives reach the spawning grounds, and the town con- tinues its present oversight, the fishery should maintain its normal output. The future of the industry and the extent of its development depend wholly upon continued judicious methods of handling by the local authorities. RED BROOK (WAREHAM). Red Brook, so called from the fact that the stream is colored by deposits of iron ore, runs from White Island Pond to Buttermilk Bay. Between White Island Pond, Bartlett's.
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