234: PROPAGATIOX OF FISH. 
their owners. There is nothing, therefore, in the least 
startling or original about the undertaking, and it 
requires public aid only because rivers are never here 
owned, as in England, by one great proprietor. It 
applies to all our fresh water and most of our salt water 
fish, and is in full operation upon some of the smaller 
ponds in this countr}^ Where the fish are oj)en to all, 
there is not sufficient interest for one person to under- 
take their culture, and as this must always be the case 
wdth salmon, their production must be made either a 
question of public interest or private enthusiasm. The 
latter, with the sanction of the former, will be fully suf- 
ficient for the purpose. 
One invariable peculiarity of the American people is, 
that they attack, overturn and annihilate, and then 
laboriously reconstruct. Our first farmers chopped down 
the forests and shade trees, took crop after crop of the 
same kind from the land, exhausted the soil and made 
bare the country ; they hunted and fished, destroying 
first the wild animals, then the birds, and finally the fish, 
till in many places these ceased utterly from off the face 
of the earth; and then, .when they had finished their 
work, that race of gentlemen moved west to renew the 
same course of destruction. After them came the re- 
storers ; they manured the land, left it fallow, put in 
practice the rotation of crops, planted shade and fruit 
trees, discovered that birds were useful in destroying 
insects and worms, passed laws to protect them where 
they were not utterly extinct, as with the pinnated 
grouse, of Pennsylvania and Long Island, and will, 
I predict, ere long re-stock the streams, rivers and 
