THE HISTORY OF FISH-CULTURE. 52.3 



present time, has always given information and advice, and wliicli pop- 

 ularizes the progress which science makes every year. 



The four establishments which we desire to see founded would -not 

 cost more than the single establishment at Huningue, and would spread 

 a knowledge of and a taste for pisciculture ; it would be their duty to 

 apply practically all the discoveries which have been made ,* they would 

 spread life and abundance in the four great basins of France ; they would 

 greatly develop the river-fisheries, and would create the necessary reg- 

 ulations; they would replenish with fish the Seine, the. Loire, the Gar- 

 onne, the Rhone, and their tributaries; they would point oul the species 

 most suitable for each part of ihe country, and would open out vast 

 resources, of private industry by the founding of smaller establishments. 



This is th-e object we aim at, with good chances for success, and which 

 we will doubtless obtain if the government will -aid tis in our eiforts. 



D— THE PROGEBSS OF FISH-GULTUEE IN THE UXITED 



STATES. 



By James W. .Milnee. 



1.— THE IMETHODS EMPLOYED IN FISH-.CULTURE. 



There are three methods in use for the increase of fishes ; the first 

 two employed from a very early day, and the other of quite recent 

 origin. As all- of these methods have been apj)lied in the United States 

 we will consider them in order. The first is the transfer of living fishes 

 from their natural haunts to new waters, or to a confined area in their 

 own stream, lake, or arm of the sea, where they are either left to de- 

 pend on such food as the water may afford, or else are supplied with it 

 from elsewhere. 



The second method is the gathering of eggs naturally impregnated 

 and deposited, and placing them in ponds or streams, or caring for them 

 during the period of incubation in suitably-arranged aj^paratus. 



The third method, and the one by which the more important .results 

 have been attained, consists, primarily, in the artificial fecundation of 

 the ova, (expressing the eggs and milt from ripe fishes together in a 

 vessel ;) and secondly, in caring for them in suitably-dcTised apparatus 

 through the egg-stage, and as far along during the embrj'ouic life of the 

 fish as their welfare requires, when they may either be turned out to 

 shift for themselves, or else kept in i^roperly-arranged ponds or other- 

 wise, and fed as occasion requires for an indefinite period of time. 



It has been quite a usual habit in writing on the subject of fish 

 culture to attribute the origin of tbe art to the Chinese, and many have 

 been led to believe from the frequent assertions to that effect that the 

 artificial fecundation of fish eggs was practiced by the Chinese, who 



