4 



and points out that success means a great addition to the food- 

 supply brought to the doors of the people in the tanks and channels. 



Inland Water Fisheries. — Under this head which, however, by its 

 title covers much of the river fisheries, are included a totally 

 different and very simple class of fishery, viz., that of backwaters and 

 lagoons, reservoirs, tanks and ponds, devoted wholly or in part to 

 deliberate food production ; to aquiculture in fact. This system, in 

 vogue in ancient Egypt and extensively practised at this day in 

 China where the pressure of the inland millions demands more 

 nitrogenous food than the soil can supply, is now recognised in 

 western countries, and is believed to give a far greater equivalent of 

 food per acre than a similar area of soil. Some such system is 

 beconie a necessity in inland India where there are already lakhs of 

 acres of comparatively unproductive waters, besides possibilities for 

 additions to the productive waters. For instance, there are vast 

 reaches of permanent water behind many of the anikats, as in the 

 Bhavani above the anikat at the town of that name ; there are 

 hundreds of square miles of shallow backwater as at Pulicat, Ennore, 

 etc., and of " rivers" such as the now sewery Cooum and the Adyar : 

 there are lakes and tanks, such as the Red Hills tank and a vast tank 

 on the Kurnool canal, which do not dry up during the year ; there 

 are myriads of large irrigation wells in which the owner might keep 

 a few fish for his own supply. 



There are many low-lying and even swampy places by the side of 

 rivers, channels, and streams, or at the lower end of an irrigation area, 

 which are, by their position, useless as irrigation tanks, and into which 

 flood-surplus or drainage waters could be turned with case from the 

 fact of their lying low; these would, if properly excavated, retain 

 water the whole year through. Many a tank might be so deepened as 

 to retain water throughout the hot season sufficient to keep a stock of 

 fish alive, and in many private tanks, especially near towns, it would 

 probably pay to retain the whole water as a stock pond, cultivating 

 the hitheito irrigated ayacut as dry land or by means of wells ; in 

 Bengal the practice of keeping stock ponds, fed by duly purchased 

 irrigation water, is found to be a paying business : it is even probable 

 that pools fed from wells might be used with advantage as breeding 

 grounds and stock ponds. Mr, Thomas gives an instance from his 

 own experience (Indian) which should be pul)lished : a pond of 2 or 3 

 acres was under clearance, and was stocked by him at a total expense 

 of Rs. 2 with selected fish-fry, care being taken to exclude those of 

 ti\e predatory class ; no food, except a few snails at the time of stock- 

 ing, was supplied and 18 months' rest was given. From that time 

 " more than 4,000 lbs. of fish were annually taken out of the pond 

 " without making any impression on it." This was the result of care- 

 ful selection, non-predatory fish l)eing alone stocked. The experience 

 of other countries is similar. Even the ordinary tanks of the country 

 might be made, with care to breed more fish than is now the case. 



A perusal of the detailed papers and consideration of the facts 

 mentioned in them and in the above sketch show not only the enor- 

 mous and pressing importance of t^he fisheries question, but also that 

 it can only be dealt with by a permanent department, which, by reason 

 of its connection with the food-supply and agricultural interests, 



