110 



(rovernment is playing and doubtless will play its part in initiating and 

 assisting investigation and experimeut both by direct and indirect 

 action, but tbe future really lies with capital, enterprise and foresight, 

 and if Indian capital is not awake and alert the industry will presently 

 pass in its most lucrative forms into non-Indian hands 



2-J2. Pisciculture. — As regards pisciculture the matter is somewhat 

 different ; the larger, more difficult and uncertain enterprises such as 

 the stocking of Government reservoirs and canals which annually dry 

 up either wholly or nearly, must be the subject of Government experi- 

 ment as already proposed. But the " petite culture " of the water may 

 readily be undertaken by those who similarly cultivate the soil ; the 

 matter is of the simplest, and what Government can do can be even 

 more easily and cheaply done by the villager with bnt slight instruc- 

 tion and help ; it is j)recisely a case for that small-scale effort on the 

 potential benefits of which I have elsewhere dwelt,* It is a case where 

 the possessor of a tiny pnnd of a few yards square, can experiment 

 practically without cost, and may be practically certain that favourable 

 results will be equally true of larger areas ; possibly indeed, the larger 

 area will give better results since the fish will live under more normal 

 conditions. The cost of the experiments in the small experimental 

 ponds would be nothing but that of half a dozen parent fish ; as 

 suggested above, refuse or insect, etc., food can be cheaply suj^plied if 

 the ponds are small and destitute of natural food — which is improbable 

 — and fish are numerous, but in such cases the value of the fish should 

 far outweigh the cost of the food , Hence well wishers of rural progress 

 may easily attempt small culture with a knowledge that success would 

 be readily imitated and sj^read throughout the country. 



233. It is certain that in India an acre of average water will, with 

 proper care, produce as great a weight of food as an acre of average 

 laud, while its money value will be much greater ; hence wherever 

 a pond naturally perennial or which may be cheaply made so, is 

 available, it should be utilized, it being remembered that the utilization 

 of ponds by pisciculture not only costs less than arable culture, but is 

 far less liable to seasonal uncertainties, while the water is still avail- 

 able for other purposes and is even improved by fish growth ; even 

 in a season of drought the harvest does not fail since the whole stock 

 of fish can be taken as the water dries up ; finally, such ponds if 

 triennially dried and cultivated with cereals will, for one or two years, 

 give enormous crops aud at the same time be improved for subsequent 

 reversion to pisciculture. 



234, Now, not only are there many small ponds, as mentioned 

 above, but these could be deepened and enlarged at small cost ; a 

 pond usually exists just because it is already in a low and favourable 

 place for the gathering of water, and deepening merely increases its 



* Convocatiou address, 1 900. 



