378 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



cial production of young fish, were here, as elsewhere, doomed to dis. 

 appointment. 



Fish-culture, in the widest sense of the term, embraces (1) fishery 

 legislation, (2) pond-culture, (3) transplanting fish, and (4) production 

 of young fish in an artificial manner and the placing of the young fish 

 in open waters, or what is known as artificial fish-culture. 



Fishery legislation forms in all countries an object of serious atten- 

 tion of the government and the legislative bodies. It aims at maintain- 

 ing in open waters all those conditions which are necessary for the 

 propagation, increase, life, and well-being of fish. In Finland this legis- 

 lative work did not commence till 1786, when excellent fishery regula- 

 tions were promulgated ; and after the fishery regulations of the year 

 18G5 were made, the work went on uninterruptedly by making various 

 local laws securing the protection of certain species of fish during the 

 spawning season, as well as the manner of superintending the waters 

 and regulating fishing iu such a manner as to sufficiently protect the pro- 

 pagation of fish in the natural way, to protect the young fish, to prevent 

 any impure or poisonous matter from getting in the water, and to secure 

 all those conditions which are necessary for the well-being of the fish and 

 the reproduction of food in so far as this is dependent on the aquatic 

 vegetation, &c. I venture to say that Finland has not been backward 

 in this respect, although many gaps are yet to be filled, and many im- 

 provements in the details will have to be introduced as greater experi- 

 ence is gained. 



The pond-culture of the Germans — that is, the raising of certain kinds 

 of fish, especially carp, in ponds — is, as far as I know, in no part of Ger- 

 many an object of direct care of the state, but is left entirely to private 

 effort. According to a statement by P. Dabry de Thiersant, the Chinese 

 only raise fish living on vegetable food; and these fish are raised from 

 roe impregnated in the natural way and gathered in the rivers. In 

 Europe the fish which are principally raised in ponds are carp, which 

 live on vegetable matter, and, though to a less degree, brook trout and 

 fresh-water trout and saibling, partly iu ponds and partly in brooks. 

 As these last mentioned kinds of fish are found in Finland, it must be 

 supposed that it would be possible for us also to raise them in ponds; 

 but whether it would be a source of profit is another question. These 

 fish require exclusively animal food, flesh or fish, which makes their sup- 

 port quite expensive, so much so, in fact, that it will only pay in localities 

 where lish fetch a very high price. It has been calculated that it requires 

 5 kilograms horse flesh or other flesh, or a corresponding quantity offish, 

 to raise 1 kilogram trout. German trout-culturists get as much as 4 

 marks (05 cents) per pound for their trout, and with such prices this in- 

 dustry of course becomes profitable. Mr. A. Haldenwang, proprietor of 

 the well known piscicultural establishment at Gaisbach, near Baden- 

 Baden, says, in his report for 1881, that he gets from 3 to 5 marks (71 

 cents to $1.19) per pound for his trout. Our long and severe winters, last- 



