The fresh-water streams and lakes abound in bass, trout, pickerel, and perch. In the spring the shad fisheries along the Delaware are very profitable. The catch of sturgeon is also very large. All these waters are constantly restocked by means of the hatcheries near Hackettstown which the state maintains. The shad fisheries of the Hudson were formerly extensive, but owing chiefly to destructive methods of fishing and to the pollution of the river this industry has practically disappeared. The sheltered bays and inlets of the state and the nearness of the fisheries to the markets have made the salt water fisheries very successful. Bluefish and weakfish for food, and menhaden for oil and fertilizer are caught along the coast in large quantities, while in the bays and coves immense quantities of oysters and clams are gathered. Important centers of this industry are Keyport, Barnegat Bay, Tuckerton, Absecon, Maurice River Cove, and Bivalve. AGRICULTURE =Soils.=--In the northern part of the state the sides of the higher mountains are steep and are in many places denuded of soil. In the valleys and on the hills north of the terminal moraine the soil consists largely of glacial drift, which is composed of clay, sand, and gravel mixed with bowlders. This soil is fertile, but a large part of it is not easy to cultivate, because of the large stones in It and because of the rugged surface. South of the terminal moraine, in the Highlands and in the Piedmont Plateau, the soil is composed of gravel and sand washed down by streams from the glacial deposits farther north and of disintegrated underlying rocks, which in the Highlands consisted largely of gneiss and in the Piedmont Plateau of sandstones and shales. The soil of the Coastal Plain consists of extensive deposits of gravel, sand, clay, and marl deposited in the ocean, which once covered this region. The gravel, sand, and clay were carried into it by the streams which flowed from the north. The marl consists largely of very small shells of animals that lived in the sea. This mixed soil is very fertile, particularly that in which there is an abundance of marl. This is found in the "Marl Belt," which is a strip of land extending from the Atlantic Highlands southwest past Trenton and Mount Holly as far as Salem. Its width varies, being widest at its northeastern end and becoming narrower and less rich in marl toward the southwest. Formerly marl was used extensively as a fertilizer to enrich poorer soils, but it has been generally displaced by the richer commercial fertilizers. The so-called "Pine Barrens" which cover a large part of the Plain, east of the Marl Belt, are comparatively unproductive, but by proper cultivation and the application of fertilizers, these areas can be made very productive. [Illustration: Gathering peaches, New Jersey]