61 



country. We are not, however, in our work here so much 

 concerned with the actual details and difficulties of the 

 American work which Mr. Fryer criticises, as with those 

 general biological principles which I have emphasised 

 above — such as the destruction of young under natural 

 conditions in the sea, and the duty of man if he disturbs 

 the balance of nature in a locality to do what he can to 

 equalize matters by helping in the production and protec- 

 tion of the young. 



AVith Mr. Fryer's remark (foot of p. 41) as to breeding 

 from the larger and more vigorous parents I am in cordial 

 agreement. If aquiculture has been long delayed as a 

 scientific industry, it has as a consequence this advantage, 

 that it can adopt at once principles and practices evolved 

 gradually in the long history of agriculture and stock- 

 raising. It labours, however, under the obvious disadvan- 

 tage that so much of the result of our labour passes at 

 once beyond our lien. We cannot control the fish through- 

 out their life-history, we cannot yet take stock of the 

 population of our seas. This introduces such an element 

 of uncertainty into the pioblem, that, although I think we 

 have good reason to be encouraged and to continue the 

 work vigorously in a hopeful spirit and with an open 

 mind, still I for one would not go so far as to say (as some 

 have done) that marine fish-hatching had passed beyond 

 the experimental stage; and I may refer in this connection 

 to the somewhat fuller statement on the subject I made in 

 last year's report,* and to my discussion there of the con- 

 ditions of a crucial experiment for the purpose of testing 

 the results of adding artificially hatched fry to the popula- 

 tion of a circumscribed sea-area. We await with interest 

 the result of the Fishery Board for Scotland's work in 

 Loch Fyne. 



* Report for 1897, pp. 24 and '2i>, 



