TJic CoTintry Gentleman's Magazine 



23 



WA TER-F ARMING. 



THE civic population of the United 

 Kingdom are deeply interested in all 

 matters relating to the supply of provisions, 

 and the active co-operation of every art that 

 can increase the quantity is imperatively re- 

 quired. From the science of pisciculture, 

 which in Britain is yet in its infancy, impor- 

 tant results may be obtained, and the object 

 of the present paper is to shew how much 

 may be done to increase the supply of fish 

 from our rivers and streamlets, and how many 

 a piece of land, at present worthless, might 

 easily be converted into a pond, and made 

 capable of yielding a revenue far exceeding 

 that of highly cultivated fields. 



In France the art of aqueculture has pro- 

 duced the most startling results. Many rivers 

 there have been re-stocked with fish, employ- 

 ment given to hundreds of poor fishermen, 

 and the food of the people greatly increased. 

 To such an extent, and so liberally, has this 

 important matter been carried out, that the 

 Government are now making distributions of 

 the eggs of the best kinds of fish gratuitously 

 to all who will undertake to hatch and rear 

 them, and make a return of the quantity re- 

 produced. 



With regard to the artificial production of 

 .salmon, the establishment at Stormontfi'eld, 

 is now a household word, and when we con- 

 trast theprofit derived from this mode of water- 

 farming with any other kind of fanning, the 

 pecuniary advantage in favour of the fomier 

 is fully apparent. " If," says Mr Buckland, 

 " to the first cost of an animal reared and 

 fattened on a farm we add the risks that are 

 run in maintaining him in health and con- 

 dition until he is fit for human food, the pro- 

 fit for feeding is not very great ; but in the 

 case of the salmon we can send a fish down 

 to the sea which even by this artificial means 

 does not cost a farthing, and he there grows 

 and fattens ^vithout either care or superin- 

 tendence, without cost or trouble of any kind, 

 and when he is in the highest condition he 

 returns to us worth about as much as a prime 



fed sheep, which has required to be watched 

 and cared for till it reached that condition. 

 Here, then, as Lord Essex said, ' is a mine 

 of wealth under water as much as any under 

 ground,' and if this be not a branch of public 

 wealth that deserves cultivating we know of 

 none that is." In Ireland the same success has 

 attended the labours of the Messrs Ashworth, 

 who have stocked with salmon thousands of 

 acres of water in Galway by the artificial 

 propagation of their ova. In the north and 

 west of Scotland there are many thousands of 

 acres of water which might become immensely 

 valuable were this system to be carried out ; 

 and, indeed, unless the artificial rearing of 

 salmon be speedily adopted many of these 

 salmon rivers and lochs will decline in value 

 from over-fishing, as was the case with the 

 Tay, till the Stormontfield experiment was 

 tried as a means of remedying the evil. 



But not only by the rearing of salmon can 

 much be done to increase our foo^ supplies, 

 every sheet of pure water may be turned into 

 a means of rearing abundance of fish. 



That the art of pisciculture was largel}' 

 carried on in Britain in former times no one 

 can doubt. Before the era of the Reforma- 

 tion, fish-ponds were attached to inland 

 convents and monasteries, as fish w^re 

 largely required for the wants of the 

 church ; but when the ecclesiastical pro- 

 perty fell into the hands of laymen, 

 the ponds were drained, or were allowed to 

 become choked up with reeds and mud. In 

 Holland, where much attention is paid to 

 this subject, fish-ponds are made upon scien- 

 tific principles. They are made in a series 

 of two, three, or more, communicating by 

 hatches Avith one another, so that when one 

 is drained the others may remain full ; and 

 each or all of them can be raised or let down 

 at pleasure. Ponds made after the Dutch 

 manner should not exceed 80 yards in length, 

 30 in breadth, and 6 feet in depth. They 

 may then, when suitably prepared by a layer 

 of gravel at the bottom, be stocked with 



