XIX -THE PISCICULTURAL ESTABLISHMENT OF MR. AUGUST 

 FRUWIRTH IN FREILAND NEAR ST. POLTEN, LOWER AUSTRIA. 



By Dr. Emil vox Marenzeller.* 



[Abhandlungen der k. k. zoologisch-botanischen Gesellscbaft in Wien for 1877.] 



An interest has been manifested with us in Austria in transforming 

 waste and unproductive river regions into territories capable of sustain- 

 ing fish, and the government as well as private individuals have at differ- 

 ent periods taken steps towards bringing about this result. But as these 

 efforts were neither systematic nor united, the results were not very 

 striking. It is but a rare case that a private individual owns extensive 

 fishing-waters. Intricate claims to use the water and fish in it — claims 

 made from every side — blunt his energies or frustrate the beneficial 

 measures which he has- inaugurated, and even the greatest zeal will grow 

 cold when continually meeting with such hinderances, especially with 

 ignorance and covetousness. Our present system of title-deeds to water 

 property is insufficient, our legislation for protecting the fishing interest 

 is imperfect, and even if there are laws they are not properly carried 

 out. And without such laws properly observed the experience gained 

 nearly a century ago, that the propagation of fish at the right time and 

 right place may be caused artificially, and that with proper measures 

 for protecting the young fish they may be raised without such enormous 

 losses as threaten them in open waters, will be practically useless. 

 While, therefore, private individuals will feel little inclination to place 

 impregnated fish-eggs in waters which they only rent under certain 

 conditions, or whose neighboring waters are owned by persons whose 

 sole aim seems to be the destruction of fish, the impregnation of fish- 

 eggs on a large scale will, at least in our country, be hardly a paying 

 business. Under these circumstances, our object in directing attention 

 to a new piscicultural establishment, well furnished with all modern im- 

 provements both foreign and domestic, can only be to awaken sympathy 

 for a most praiseworthy undertaking or to encourage the enterprising 

 manager ; but by no means to meet a long-felt general want. But the 

 author is of opinion that the new Austrian fishery laws, which will soon 

 be in force, will form the basis for great improvements in pisciculture, 



* Die Fischzuchtanstalt des Rerrn August Frumrth in Freiland bei Si Pollen in Nfcder- 

 osterreich. Vienna, 1877. Translated by Herman Jacobson. 



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