MAEINE FOOD FISHES. 19 



Scientific men and skilled experts could alone conduct operations successfully ; and as 

 these were performing a work which was designed for the benefit of the community at 

 large, it was felt to be right that the cost should be met out of the public iunds. 



National fish-culture has thus obtained a recognized place, and is steadily advancing 

 in most civilized countries. Water-farming may, in the near future, under the guidance 

 of science, approach the dignity and importance which are now attached to the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil. Food-factories will no longer be confined to the land, but, at the bidding 

 of science, the waters will " bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life," 

 and with fresh emphasis the ancient precept will be repeated, " cast thy bread " (or seed) 

 " upon the waters, thou shalt find it after many days." 



The first eff^orts of fish-ctilturists were limited to fresh water food fishes, such 

 as trout, or to the anadromous species such as the salmon. By far the most extensive 

 operations were conducted in the artificial breeding of salmon as being a money-yielding 

 fish of great commercial value. Strikingly successful results were reached, both in Europe 

 and America, in restocking exhausted rivers with salmon, in keeping up the supply where 

 heavy drafts threatened scarcity or depletion, and even in establishing fisheries in waters 

 where salmon were previously unknown. Of course, due protection was combined with 

 artificial breeding. Judicious legislative enactments were adopted to regulate the times 

 and modes of fishing and to secure the removal of obstructions to the ascent of the fish to 

 their spawning grounds. The salmon rivers of Scotland, such as the Tay, where salmon- 

 culture has been carried on for many years, present the most striking instances of the 

 value of artificial breeding ; while the Doohullah Lakes in Ireland furnish an examplc 

 of the creation of a valuable fishery by placing artificially bred salmon fry in Avaters where 

 no salmon had been previously seen. 



Similar successful results have been reached in many of the rivers of continental 

 Europe. Still more remarkable have been the results of fish-culture on this side of the 

 Atlantic. Every state in the Great Republic has now its Fishery Commission and 

 numerous hatcheries with qualified experts in charge ; while in connection with the 

 United States Fishery Commission — a national institution — a band of scientific men 

 devote their energies to the investigation of fish-life in all its varieties, and a study of the 

 physics of the sea. The work accomplished by this commission has called forth the 

 admiration of the civilized world. The founder — the late Professor Baird — a man of the 

 highest attainments as a naturalist — has been succeeded by Colonel Marshall Macdonald, 

 whose great ability and matchless zeal are admitted on all hands. The Canadian Depart- 

 ment of Fisheries has accomplished a work only second to that of the United States 

 Commission ; and in the intelligent oi-ganization and guardianship of the fisheries, and 

 the practical improvements it has introduced, it has shown what science and practical 

 skill can do in the guidance of these great national industries Under the veteran fish- 

 culturist, Mr. S. Wilmot — a man of European reputation — Canadian pisciculture now 

 compares not unfavourably wnth that of any other country. 



In the United States fish-culture has been for years carried on in salmon, shad, 

 alewives, whitefish and carp. In Canada the artificial propagation of salmon and of the 

 valuable whitefish in the great lakes, has been conducted on a large scale and with 

 successful results. Both the United States and Canada contribute to the maintenance of 

 the highly valuable whitefish fishery of the great lakes by planting each year in their 



