THE HISTORY OF FISH-CULTURE. 523 



present time, has always given information and advice, and wliicli pop- 

 ularizes the progress which science makes every year. 



The four establishments which we desire to see founded would not 

 cost more than the single establishment at Huningne, and would spread 

 a knowledge of and n taste for pisciculture ; it would be their duty to 

 apply practically all the discoveries which have been made; they would 

 spread life and abundance in the four great basins of France ; they would 

 greatly develop the river-fisheries, and would create the necessary reg- 

 ulations; they would replenish with fish the Seine, the Loire, the Gar- 

 onne, the Rhone, and their tributaries; they would point out the species 

 most suitable for each part of the country, and would open out vast 

 resources of priv^ate industry by the founding of smaller establishments. 



This is the object we aim at, with good chances for success, and which 

 we will doubtless obtain if the government will aid us in our efforts. 



D— THE PROGEESS OF FISH-CULTURE IN THE UNITED 



STATES. 



By Jajiks W. Milxer. 



1. — THE METHODS EMPLOYED IN FISH-CULTURE. 



There are three methods in use for the increase of fishes ; the first 

 two employed from a very early day, and the other of quite recent 

 origin. As all of these methods have been applied in the United States 

 we will consider them in order. The first is the transfer of living fishes 

 from their natural haunts to new waters, or to a confined area in their 

 own stream, lake, or arm of the sea, where they are either left to de- 

 pend on such food as the water may afibrd, or else are supplied with it 

 from elsewhere. 



The second method is the gathering of eggs naturally impregnated 

 and deposited, and placing them in ponds or streams, or caring for them 

 during the period of incubation in suitably-arranged apparatus. 



The third method, and the one by which the more important results 

 have been attained, consists, jDrimarily, in the artificial fecundation of 

 the ova, (expressing the eggs and milt from ripe fishes together in a 

 vessel ;) and secondly, in caring for them in suitably-devised apparatus 

 through the egg-stage, and as far along during the embryonic life of the 

 fish as their welfare requires, when they may either be turned out to 

 shift for themselves, or else kept in properly-arranged ponds or other- 

 wise, and fed as occasion requires for an indefinite period of time. 



It has been quite a usual habit in writing on the subject of fish 

 culture to attribute the origin of the art to the Chinese, and many have 

 been led to believe from the frequent assertions to that effect that the 

 artificial fecundation of fish eggs was practiced by the Chinese, who 



