21 -SOME NOTES ABOUT AMERICAN FISH-CULTURE. 



BY OSCAR NORDQVIST, 



Inspector of Fisheries of Finland. 



A few days ago Hon. Marshall McDonald honored me with a request to write an 



article for the International Fisheries Congress in Chicago, containing a criticism on 



American fish-cultural methods. To thoroughly perform this task would require a 



far more comprehensive study of the subject than I was able to make during the four 



months I spent in America, and much more time than I have had at my disposal; still 



I feel it to be a debt of gratitude which I owe, both to the Fish Commissioner and the 



other fish breeders and scientists with whom I came into contact during my stay in 



America, to write a few of my impressions ou fish-culture in that great country. 



The enormous extent to which the work of fish-culture has attained in the United 



States may be at least partially attributed to the prevalent rights of fishing there. 



While in Europe either the State or private persons in most cases own fishing waters, 



nearly all such waters are public in the United States; that is to say, anybody may 



fish where he likes. As private citizens in that country can, therefore, have no direct 



interest in preserving or trying to increase the supply of fish, the General Government 



or the State must perform this duty. This has been done partly by the prohibition 



of fishing in all waters except the very largest, i. c, the sea and the large inland lakes, 



and partly by fish-breeding on such a large scale that Europe can not show anything 



approaching it. As a consequence of this enormous fish-breeding, the Americans 



have invented a number of exceedingly simple, cheap, and easily managed apparatus 



for the purpose, and have thus materially simplified the work. 



In the following article I only intend dealing with the breeding of fresh water 



! fish, which I have principally studied. Both in America and Europe the dry method 



I is almost exclusively used for the fecundation of the roe, and therefore there is nothing 



specially characteristic in this in American fish-culture. A remarkable discovery, 



I which has lately been made in America, is, however, worthy of notice, namely, Prof. 



! Reighard's method of preventing pike- perch eggs from sticking together after fecun- 



\ dation, by keeping them for some hours in a dilution of starch. The Michigan Fish 



Commission used this method last summer on a large scale and with great success. 



j In Europe the artificial fecundation of pike-perch roe has also been attempted, though 



ionly on a small scale. In these cases the roe has generally been made to attach itself 



: either to well-washed grass-roots or to myriophyllum or other water plants. It has 



'.then been taken up and hatched in self-pickers, whilst sticking in this manner to 



I] water plants or other roots. This method is, however, scarcely suitable when hatching 



(sis done on a large scale and can not give such good results as when the eggs are 



hatched quite free from any other substances. 



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