414 State Boakd of Agricultuke, &c. 



and you Lave been iiinpJy repaid for all this in the pleasure 

 you have experienced in seeing them thrive under your 

 treatment. Your total cash outlay for four years has been 

 fifty-seven dollars. Now wliat ought you to have in your 

 ponds to offset this ? You will have one thousand thre<o 

 year olds, weighing at least one and one-half pounds each ; 

 one thousand two year olds, weighing at least three-fourths 

 of a pound each ; you have two thousand two hundred and 

 fifty pounds of trout which, at the present prices, is worth 

 in the market and will sell for six hundred and seventy-fivo 

 dollars. In the summer time it is worth as much as fresh 

 Salmon, and that is worth from forty to fifty cents per 

 pound. Reckoning it at forty cents, it is worth nine hun- 

 dred dollars. Then you have, in addition to this, one 

 thousand yearlings, which are worth at least eighty dol- 

 lars, and one thousand small fry, which are worth twenty 



dollars more. 



Calling your trout worth only twenty cents per pound, 



your fifty-seven dollars has proved a profitable investment 

 which has brought you property worth five hundred and 

 thirty dollars. Supposing, for some cause or other, one- 

 half of 3^our fishes die or are stolen by somebody's neigh- 

 bor's boys, or that they do not grow to more than one-half 

 the size you expected they would — even then your fifty- 

 seven dollars has yielded you a return of more than four 

 hundred per cent. So, looking at the matter from which- 

 ever way you will, you must, I think, see that the state- 

 ment, which some one has made, that fish culture pays a 

 profit of one thousand per cent., or that fish can be raised 

 and sold in our markets for two cents per pound, are not 

 altogether wild and fanciful statements. 



