552 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tempts one to take them as food just at the time when they are the 

 poorest. 



When no such prohibition exists there will generally be no difficulty 

 in finding as many spawning fish as may be necessary, i^rovided the 

 water contains the requisite quantity. By proper forming of spawning 

 places one can regularly take on them every fish which makes its aj)- 

 pearance for spawning ; if it is not quite ready for that when it is taken, 

 it can be set free in the water again ; it will again make its appearance 

 at the place when the proper time comes. Or one can in the A merican 

 manner construct the spawning places so that one without touching the 

 fish, leisurely and at ease in the daytime can collect all the spawn de- 

 posited and fertilized the evening before. 



That there will be fish in abundance to supply all the spawn which is 

 considered necessary for planting in a stream when it has become 

 properly stocked is certain ; that natural culture will take place by the 

 side of the artificial is thus self-evident. But whether this gives any 

 yield of any living fish or not is a matter of entke indifference, except- 

 ing in so far that the quantity of spawn deposited in this manner, and 

 the possibly small number of young arising therefrom, plainly increases 

 the nourishing capacity, since, as remarked, the spawn as well as the 

 young will serve as food for a whole midtitude of all kinds of fishes. 



After— 



1. Artificial liaicMng of the multitude of eggs, which is considered nec- 

 essary for the proper yearly recruiting of the water, or filling up the 

 decrease caused by steady fishing for the fish which have reached a 

 suitable size, is required also — 



2. Bearing of the young in an inclosure until they are at least six 

 months old, when they will have reached such a size that they them- 

 selves may appear as enemies among a host of enemies whose prey they 

 would have become at an earlier age 5 there is required in aquaculture, 

 as in agriculture, proper inclosing of the ground. This must, in the 

 scheme here proposed, provide for the hindering or destruction of ene- 

 mies which will divide the harvest with the breeder, and take the 

 hon's share or the whole if they are able. Among these, man stands 

 first. It is, therefore, a matter of course that the laws must secure 

 for the fish-culturist, as well as the farmer, the indisputable right 

 to the fruit of his labor, and thus make the proprietorship and tight of 

 fishing in the water of every condition just as clear and fixed as the cor- 

 responding right to the ground in question. 



As long as the right to free and unrestricted fishing in brooks and riv- 

 ers is recognized fish-culture cannot pay, because our brooks and rivers 

 are just as important for the rearing of young fishes as they are also 

 chosen waters in which they may nourish themselves until they become 

 full-grown or mature x^roducts, which will be indiscriminately fished for, 

 and thereby the result of every effort for the increase of the fish will be 

 brought to naught. What is needed in this direction this is not the 



