i;o 



Captured for market. Mr. Hornell lays stress on the 

 fact that no attempt is made at the alternative method of 

 fish-farming, viz., that of the intensive culture, by artificial 

 hatching" and artificial feeding, of sea fish as practised in 

 Japan and probably in Japan only (see paragraphs 179 

 to 184 of my " Note on Japanese F'isheries ") and that, in 

 all probability, the artificial hatching — so easy in these 

 days — of millions of fry and their nourishment by adding 

 artificial food to the natural contents of the water, would 

 immensely aid their productivity and profits. 



5. In fact, the actual produce per acre of the fish- 

 farms reported on is disappointing as compared with 

 potential produce ; that for Comacchio, the origin of 

 which goes back to Roman times and in its present form 

 is many centuries old, is decidedly poor, though evidently 

 much larger three hundred years ago when the 

 money value of its output was higher than at present 

 though money was several times its present value. At 

 Arcachon, however, the average output is better, and 

 averages 264 lb. per acre, valued at Rs. 65, a very fair 

 outturn for water to which no artificial aid is given to 

 increase the produce, and about double the ordinary out- 

 turn of carp per acre in German lakes, except in Bavaria. 

 But it is to be noted that this outturn — at Arcachon 

 especially — is obtained with very little labour and ex- 

 pense ; a fish farmer with 100 hectares, or 243 acres, 

 clears ,:^ 1,000 profit /^r anmim, and for this large area 

 he employs only /(9?/;' labourers, while the cost of repairs 

 is but small. When compared with the produce of an 

 equal area of land, requiring to be ploughed, sown, cul- 

 tivated, manured, harvested, at large expenditure of labour 

 and money, and with, after all, very uncertain results 

 owing to variable or adverse seasons, the outturn is 

 decidedly good and recalls an expression actually used 

 to myself in Bavaria by a successful arable and carp 

 farmer whose farm was half land, half water, that he 

 wished that the whole of his farm were water. 



6. The areas under fish-farming in Arcachon and 

 Comacchio are the low-lying lands on the sea margin 

 which in nature form marshes and lagoons, periodically 

 overflowed by the sea, or, when separated from the sea 

 by low spits of land, are subject to the periodical in and 

 outflow of the tides through a bar : these have often 



