WATER CULTURE COMPARED WITH LAND CULTURE. 239 



while in the embryo state from England to Australia, half way 

 round the globe ; our white-fish, trout, and salmon-trout have 

 been sent to England, and living shad were actually transported 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, offering the possibility of sup- 

 plying that entire coast and ocean with a new fish. This latter 

 i remarkable feat; but trout spawn are sent from one e<nd of 

 our country to the other with as. little trouble or danger as letters, 

 and are delivered by express precisely as other packages. The 

 slow-hutcliing fish are the more easily handled in this particular, 

 as the eggs develop slowly and will live perfectly well packed in 

 damp'moss, but other kinds only require care and experience. 



The cost of this undertaking is insignificantly moderate. A 

 salmon- hatching house can be built for $1,000 while the necessary 

 implements for shad raising are too inexpensive to be worth 

 mentioning. Some labor must be employed, but it is mostly un- 

 skilled and cheap, while the outlay for transportation is simply the 

 mere charge of express or travelling fare. The people of this 

 country would not grudge this were it a hundred times as great 

 with the certain prospect of developing a new food resource and 

 diminishing the price of living to the poor. 



The importance of this matter can hardly be over-estimated. 

 We raise animals for man's use, cross their breeds, study their 

 food, and try and adapt their surroundings to their greatest de- 

 velopment. We cultivate plants and vegetables, and strive to 

 obtain new and improved varieties. We import cattle from 

 Europe, horses from Africa, sheep from Spain, wheat from Egypt, 

 sorghum from Asia. Our daily struggle is to make the most of 

 whatever can be turned to the support of the human race, except 

 with one great class which has always contributed, and, unless 

 exterminated, always will contribute larg;ely to that end. Who 

 would have thought twenty years ago that a despised " love 

 apple" could ever be converted into the useful tomato ? And in 

 earlier days who would have expected the change from the poison- 

 ous wild potato into the succulent root which now supports a 

 nation and adds to the comfort of every human being ? 



What was done with the common tomatoes, potatoes, onions, 

 and hundreds of other vegetable productions, whieh, as wild, 

 were worthless, may in a higher degree be carried into effect with 

 fish. . Wild rice scarcely produces enough seed to continue tho 

 Bupply ; but protected, developed, encouraged, it feeds a tenth 

 part of the world. Fish neglected, destroyed, poached and 



