PROGRESS IN PRACTICAL FISH CULTURE 



By DwiGHT Lydell 

 Michigan Fish Commission, Comstock Park, Mich. 



Perhaps the animal kingdom affords no more striking 

 example of waste and loss than occurs in the reproduction 

 of young fish in a wild or natural state. When a parent 

 fish must be provided with reproductive germs in such 

 lavish numbers — often a thousand or more in order to 

 produce a singje adult — or, in other words, when nature 

 must gamble at odds of a thousand to one in order to 

 insure a posterity, it is timely to inquire into the extent 

 to which this remarkable waste may be conserved and 

 utilized. It is therefore the mission of the practical fish 

 culturist to rescue from peril, to salvage natural waste 

 and so shape its destiny as to add enormously to our food 

 resources. It is obvious that he will succeed only to the 

 extent that he is able to determine what are the real con- 

 structive forces of nature, then provide ways and means 

 of utilizing, in proper balance, such of these forces as are 

 in harmony with the special work at hand; and at the 

 same time to constantly safeguard against all adverse 

 conditions and natural forces that blight and destroy. 



It is my purpose merely to refer briefly to improved prac- 

 tical methods that have stabilized and increased produc- 

 tion to an extent that many additional millions of young 

 fish have been added to our output in recent years. 



Advancement in practical fish-cultural work depends 

 to a great extent upon the fish culturist himself. He 

 must thoroughly investigate natural conditions in his lo- 

 cality, and must devise means to control or modify any 

 features inimical to satisfactory results. Certain kinds 

 of pond fish' will, with ideal weather conditions, reproduce 

 themselves to some extent, but the fish culturist, if he 

 is observing, may develop such other conditions as to in- 



