514 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [24] 
CHAPTER VI. 
EXPENSES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AND OF RUNNING IT. 
The cost of the first establishment of piscicultural apparatus, and of 
their maintenance, will depend on the object for which they were estab- 
lished and on the extent to which the work is to be carried on. If the 
operator wants to have recourse to artificial means of propagation only 
for stocking small sheets of water, for which he would only need 30,000 
to 40,000 eggs, the expenses will be very small. 
An intelligent workman can, even during a very severe winter, take 
care of an enormous quantity of successfully hatched eggs, whilst his 
work will be greatly simplified in spring and during summer, because 
the fish belonging to these seasons are very prolific. These expenses 
may, on the other hand, amount to a considerable sum, according to the 
greater or less extent of the operations and the degree of development 
to which the fish are to be brought. 
The expenses will, in all cases, comprise the ground, sheds, canals, 
water-courses, and will be regulated according to the location. 
The establishment should comprise the following: (1) Fecundating 
vessels; (2) hatching apparatus; (3) pincers; (4) thermometer; (5) nets, 
&e.; (6) different vessels. 
The principal and regular expenses of the establishment comprise: 
(1) Wages of the persons in charge of the propagation and the surveil- 
lance of the spawn; (2) cost of spawn and its transportation, fish, &e. 
These expenses are, comparatively speaking, very small,-so that for 
4,000 to 5,000 francs a year one would have an establishment which 
would be able to supply on the most liberal scale all the fish needed for 
stocking the waters of a country like Belgium. With this sum several 
inillions of eggs of the finest kinds of fish could be produced every year. 
The operation becomes expensive only when one wishes to raise young 
fish of a certain age, instead of placing them as soon as possible in those 
waters where they are to live. In that case a sufficient quantity of the 
proper food should be procured, their development should be watched, 
they should be regularly fed, and protected against the attacks of their 
enemies. All this would in the end amount to more than the value of 
the fish in its wild state; for it should be remembered that pisciculture 
will only yield a certain profit, proportionate to the capital invested, if 
the means employed are simple and follow nature. It would therefore 
be profitable to scatter the young fish throughout the open waters im- 
mediately after the umbilical sack has been absorbed, and to consign 
propositions, for the permanent and prolonged maintenance of fish to 
the domain of laboratory experiment. 
CONCLUSION. 
All the above regulations are based on the principle that small pisci- 
cultural establishments, founded in those localities where the need of 
