MARINE FISH-FARMING: 



A DESCRIPTION OF 



FRENCH AND ITALIAN METHODS 



WORTHY OF TRIAL IN INDIAN 



BACKWATERS AND DELTAS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The utilisation of ponds and lagoons for the rearing 

 of fish from fry is an industry of great antiquity. The 

 Egyptians appear to have elaborated suitable methods 

 2,500 years ago and we know that the Chinese have 

 been successfully engaged in similar pursuits for an 

 unknown number of centuries. 



In Europe fish-farming" was first practised by the 

 Romans. We know that the fattening of sea-fish was a 

 fashionable pursuit of the luxurious during the first 

 century B.C. Pliny and Terentius Varro have given 

 descriptions of these fish-ponds, amongst the most famed 

 being those formed by Lucullus near Naples which com- 

 municated with the sea by a canal reputed to have cost 

 more than the amount lavished by the noble owner upon 

 the construction of his villa. This canal was fitted with 

 sluice gates and by methods very similar to those to be 

 described in detail on a later page, both the fry and the 

 adults of several species of sea fish were induced to 

 ascend the canal to the ponds. As showing the great 

 scale on which these ponds were conceived and the suc- 

 cess of these early operations, we have Pliny's statement 

 that after the death of Lucullus, the fish in his ponds 

 realized four million sesterces or not less than £40,000. 



The Roman marine fish-farms in spite of their great 

 cost are reputed to have yielded handsome profits when 

 experience in their management was gained. None 

 appear to have survived the Augustine age though 

 it may well be that the establishment of fish-culture in 



