APPENDIX. 241 



favorable to their production. Of course judgment must 

 be exercised in carrying out such experiments, quite as 

 much as would be exercised in the introduction or culti- 

 vation of a new food-producing plant in agriculture. We 

 acclimatize every species of agricultural 'plant, and examine 

 its qualities and capabilities, for cattle, or for ourselves; 

 we study the soil and manure suited to it, &c., &c. ; we 

 have shows and prizes for the best specimens of agricul- 

 tural productions, and thousands of persons assemble to note 

 and study them ; but who ever thinks of acclimatizing an 

 apparently worthless water-weed ?" 



II. 



MESSRS. MARTIN AND GILLONE'S SYSTEM OF HATCHING 

 AND REARING YOUNG SALMON.* 



In addition to the group of salmon-breeding ponds at 

 Stormontfield, a very successful suite of breeding-boxes has 

 been laid down on the river Dee, in the Stewartry of Kirk- 

 cudbright, by Messrs. Martin and Gillone, the lessees of 

 the river Dee salmon-fisheries. Mr. Gillone, who is an 

 adept in the art of fish culture, was one of the earliest to 

 experiment on the salmon, and so long ago as 1830 had 

 arrived at the conclusion that parr were young salmon, and 

 that that tiny animal changed at a given period into a 

 smolt, and in time became a valuable table-fish. These 

 early experiments of Mr. Gillone's were not in any sense 

 commercial ; they were conducted solely with a view to 

 solve what was then a curious problem in salmon-growth. 

 In later years Mr. Gillone and his partner have entered 

 upon salmon breeding as an adjunct of their fisheries on 

 the river Dee, for which, as tacksmen, they pay a rental of 



* From the " Harvest of the Sea." 

 21 Q 



