BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 369 



Vol. Ill, fto. 34. Washington, I>. C. Oct. 22, 18 8#. 



Before passing an opinion as to the advisability of introducing arti- 

 ficial fish -culture in Finland I deem it proper to give a brief review of 

 the present condition of fish-culture in several foreign countries ; more 

 especially because the experiences made at Nikolsk during the last 25 

 years would by no means be considered as encouraging to those who 

 wish to introduce fish-culture in their own country. This applies, how- 

 ever, only if one desires to make fish-culture financially profitable, and 

 does not consider it merely as a pleasant pastime, or as an opportunity 

 for making interesting experiments. 



FRANCE. 



I begin with France because the impetus for the more general intro- 

 duction of artificial fish-culture came from that country during the first 

 years of the reign of Napoleon III. Prof. Emile Blanchard, member of 

 the Institute in his work, published in 1866, Les Poissons des eaux douces 

 de la France, has given, pp. 571-697, a review of the history of fish- 

 culture in France during the present century, and pp. 610-623, an in- 

 teresting and instructive resume of the necessary conditions for the 

 well-being and increase offish, both of which articles appeared in a Swed- 

 ish translation in 1869, in my "Journal for Fisheries and Aquiculture". 

 I inclose a number of this journal, and take the liberty to direct atten- 

 tion to the two articles in question, p. 33 and p. 74, with the remark that, 

 according to M. J. Clave, Revue des deux Mondes, January, 1868, p. 146, 

 the large piscicultural establishment at Hiiningen, in Alsace, which, up to 

 the year 1862 had cost the Government about 600,000 francs [$120,000], 

 and where, from 1855-1862, about 30 million eggs offish belonging to the 

 salmon family had been hatched, had increased the stock offish in the 

 Seine, Loire, Garonne, and the Bhine only by a few trout and other sal- 

 monoids. The interest in artificial fish-hatching which sprang up very 

 suddenly in France, and which soon became very general, diminished 

 in the same degree as the exaggerated expectations regarding it proved 

 vain, and when the Empire fell it had almost died out entirely. 



GERMANY. 



That branch of industry which the Germans term "pond-culture," which 

 mainly employs itself in the raising, in ponds, of carp and recently also 

 of trout, is of very ancient date. But not till after Alsace had been 

 annexed to Germany, and the French establishment at Hiiningen had 

 become the property of the German Government, and Germany had 

 become an empire, did an interest in fish-culture begin to be awakened 

 in Government circles. In Berlin the German Fishery Association was 

 formed under the patronage of the Crown Prince of Germany. As 

 Bull. U. S. F. C, 83 24 



