VALUE OF NORWEGIAN LAKES FOR FISH CULTURE. 563 



sucli au agreement could not be rendered feasible; a majority should 

 have the right to control the minority; because one or more perverse ones 

 are found everywhere, and such associations serving the common use 

 should not be checked by a single person or a few persons, whose in- 

 terests probably may be of little importance compared with those of 

 most of the others. 



In comparison with the cultivation of the kinds of fishes related to 

 the trout, whether they be in the sea or fresh water, the cultivation of 

 the salmon will always be beyond comparison the most profitable, taken 

 as a whole, for all the interested persons in partnership, or for the indi- 

 vidual who can secure for himself the greater portion of the profit of 

 the planting of the young which he must hatch and rear and then lib- 

 erate into the sea. There is of course an important difference in the 

 rapidity of growth between different species of lake as w^ell as salt-water 

 trout ; but if one institute a comparison between the species of both 

 kinds of trout, which may be considered to represent the middle class, 

 and salmon, the relation will show itself to be as follows: After being 

 hatched out in the spring the young salmon remain in the river where 

 they are born until the next spring; then about half of them change 

 their markings and go to sea. Whether these are stronger individuals 

 or one of the sexes is not known. The other half remain in the river 

 until the spring following this, then change their dress and go to sea. 

 By continued culture also after the first year a portion of the whole 

 quantity of the young hatched out in the course of the winter will 

 always go to sea. It is also unnecessary to take account as to which 

 year's fish they represent. Those which forsake the fresh water have a 

 length of 6 to 7 inches and a weight of 125 to 350 grams. These young 

 have been marked to find out their subsequent growth, and thereby it 

 has been found that even in the autumn of the same year in the spring 

 of which they went to sea at least a portion of them returned to the 

 river, and had then a weight of 1 to 3 kilograms, an average of 2 kilo- 

 grams. When they next return from the sea they weigh from 3 to 6, 

 or on the average of 4 kilograms, and are then in their third j*ear. The 

 next or fourth year they reach an average weight of 8 kilograms, and 

 so on, but in a diminishing scale. According to the experience in many 

 different fish-culturists' establishments in Europe and America the in- 

 crease of the trout with a good supply of food may be estimated for 

 corresponding ages, respectively, at 0.275, 0.650, and 1.500 kilograms. 

 Comparing these numbers, the i)roportion shows itself to be, for the sal- 

 mon and trout in question, at the close of — 



Salmon. Trout. 



The second year, average weight 2 kilograms. 0.375 kilograms. 



The third year, average weight 4.5 0.750 



The fourth year, average weight 8 1.500 



This shows what a considerable value salmon culture has conqiared 

 with trout culture. The yield from the first is, after the foiu^th year, 



