ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 13 



fisheries should be neglected. As an isolated power, 

 relying much upon trade and upon other countries 

 for our food, nothing which can produce a large and 

 ever-present stock of wholesome food should be over- 

 looked, but rather should such valuable resources be 

 cultivated and improved to the very fullest extent. 

 Yet, to our shame be it said, we do not even follow 

 France in the establishment of a national institution 

 of pisciculture. Small and solitary undertakings 

 have been made by various river proprietors for their 

 own benefit — these, for the most part, will be found 

 collected and described in the Appendix — but any- 

 thing like a school of pisciculture has yet to be 

 designed. 



Now, the reasons why pisciculture is not generally 

 practised in this country are as follows : — In the first 

 place, I must premise that there are a large number 

 of persons who would willingly practise it, if they 

 knew how to set about it, and who would gladly 

 re-stock their exhausted fisheries by this means ; but 

 they know not where to obtain fish spawn, or how to 

 deal with it when it is obtained ; nor can they find 

 persons sufficiently instructed to take spawn from 

 the fish, or to set up apparatus for them, because 

 there are not probably a dozen people in this country 

 who know how to do so. An establishment similar 



