American Fislwrics Socieiy. 129 



cultural station would be fitly combined with such a large aqua- 

 rium as has been advocated in Detroit for some years. 



Following along the line of successful work in agriculture, 

 such a station should possess a working force composed of men 

 trained for scientific research and, associated with them, assistants 

 having thorDVigli personal ac(iuaintance with the problems ot 

 practical fish culture. The work to be done must be attacked in 

 a thorougiily scientific fashion; no superficial study will really 

 succeed in throwing light upon the problems that are presented. 

 To this end the foundations must be laid broad enough to insure 

 the permanent value of the work. And equally with thoroughness 

 continuity is essential; experiments and observations must ex- 

 tend throughout the year and even through a series of years. 

 Herein lies a real danger of the plan, for idtimate success de- 

 mands that the work proceed independent of results, while im- 

 patience' for some return is a most characteristic feature of 

 American life. 



If tl'ie work of an agricultural experiment station is great, 

 equally so is that of an acjuacultural. The latter deals with all 

 conditions of existence which present themselves in the water. 

 It seeks to ascertain of what the food of each fish consists, in 

 wliat amounts it comes and where that food is found, how the 

 amount luay be increased and even how it may l)e improved by 

 the introduction of new elements imported, it may be, from dis- 

 tant parts of the world, l^xperimentally it would strive to de- 

 termine to what extent an increase in the number of the fish was 

 both possible and profitable and how this increase could best be 

 attained. Furthermore, in the light of food supply, the investi- 

 gator would institute comparisons as to the best kinds of fish to 

 raise under given circumstances, and, not content with this, would 

 endeavor, experimentally, to produce new races of fish and to 

 domesticate suitable forms. It is not necessary to carry this 

 analysis further and I only need to call attention in passing 

 to the patent fact that other living forms than fish are of con- 

 siderable economic importance on the continent and might well 

 be here. The introduction and improvement of such forms 

 would clearly be one hmction of such aquacultural stations. 



The j)roblems outlined are indeed vast, and yet we may be 

 confident that their solution lies easily within the power of the 

 human intellect, for they are all paralleled in the history of the 

 agricultural development of the race; and luan, relying upon his 

 success in the past, may go forward with supreme confidence to 

 the attainment of their soluticMi in this new field. 



