70 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



out in this country as to supply an amount of food which would be a 

 sensible addition to our resources; the second, whether the fish food 

 thus produced would be acceptable to our tastes; the third, whether 

 pisciculture would pay commercially. As to the first point, there can 

 be little doubt but that the supply of fresh-water fish of the ordinary 

 kinds might be immensely increased by proper culture. By ordinary 

 kinds are meant jack, carp, tench, roach, dace, perch, chub, gudgeon, 

 bream, and eels; but the culture of the Salmonidce family is not in- 

 cluded, as it forms a distinct branch of this question, and may be con- 

 sidered as an established and remunerative industry. Pisciculture, as 

 applied to the common fresh-water fish of different countries, is a very 

 ancient art. It was successfully practiced by the Greeks and Horn an s, 

 and probably by the Egyptians before them. It has been a branch of 

 pubHc industry among the Chinese for many centuries, and at the present 

 time fresh-water fish form the cheapest and most plentiful food in that 

 country. This is the case also to a very great extent in Japan, where, 

 by the way, it is said that most fish are preferifed in a raw to a cooked 

 state. For many centuries the abbeys and monasteries in this country 

 procured a large supply of fish food from their ponds and stews; and 

 during the church fasts, which were many, and often of long duration, 

 a large proportion of the population lived mainly on a diet of fresh- 

 water fish. The monks, and country gentlemen too, in those days, 

 must have had tolerably good ideas of pisciculture, as the different 

 old books on the formation and management of fish ponds indicate, and 

 it is certain that fish formed a very considerable portion of the food 

 supply of the kingdom. With our improved knowledge of natural his- 

 tory, and especially of the method of expressing the ova from fish and 

 artificially hatching them, whereby the increase of production is ex- 

 tended a thousand-fold, we could, doubtless, raise a very large stock of 

 fish in our ponds and rivers. But considering the great increase in the 

 population, it is more than doubtful whether the suj^ply thus obtained 

 would be any very appreciable addition to our food resources. 



But though the supi^ly of "coarse" or common fresh-water fish could 

 be greatly increased, the acceptability of such fish as food to the mass 

 of the population is very uncertain ; indeed, the popular verdict seems 

 decidedly against them, with few exceptions. They have all, more or 

 less, a palpably muddy taste, and where this is not predominant they 

 have but little more flavor than stewed blotting paper. Even trout, 

 from many streams that could be named, are either insipid or partake 

 to a great extent of the characteristic flavor of other fresh-water fish. 

 Persons may be found, indeed, who will go into raptures over jack 

 stuffed with the appropriate " pudding," or over carp and tench stewed 

 secundum artem. Even roach, dace, barbel, and bream find advocates; 

 but in this matter the vox populi is probably right, and it is more often 

 the sauce or the stuffing which gains admirers than the fish themselves. 

 It may be admitted that there is a vast difference in fresh-water fish, 



