INTRODUCTORY. 1 1 



The demand for the produce of the Fishery has also steadily 

 increased, and the enormous quantity of seventy-nine boxes of 

 eyed ova of Lochleven trout (the produce of the Fishery) were 

 sold in the season 1885-6; the boxes running 15,000 nominal, 

 and averaging about 17,500. This represents a sale of 1,382,500 

 eggs of Lochleven trout alone, while the eyed eggs of solar, fon- 

 tinalis, and fario bring up the total despatched from the Fishery 

 during the season to close on two millions. 



Almost an equal number of eggs were, in addition to these, 

 hatched into fry at the Fishery, and a large quantity of freshly 

 impregnated ova was used experimentally, a portion of which was 

 incubated at the University of Edinburgh, under the superin- 

 tendence of Professor Cossar Ewart of the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland. 



The steps by which the Fishery has risen are very gradual ; 

 there have been no leaps and bounds, nor have there been any 

 serious checks ; losses have occurred, but I have always 

 endeavoured to treat them as valuable experiments from which 

 to deduce the conditions of success. 



Twenty years ago, when Livingston Stone asked Seth Green 

 in 1866 "How many of those who engaged in trout-breeding 

 would succeed ? " he answered with his well-known quickness of 

 manner, " One in a million." Six years later, when Stone wrote 

 his book, he states : " The whole aspect of the matter has been 

 changed, and the care and study bestowed on the subject have 

 evolved a set of rules and principles, the careful observance of 

 which will render a degree of success almost certain. I think it 

 may safely be said that the time has come (1873) when trout can 

 be hatched, reared, and brought to maturity in great numbers, 

 and with comparatively little loss ; and I think it also safe to say 

 that success in raising the fish will of necessity be accompanied by 

 pecuniary success while the present relations exist between the 

 prices of trout and the cost of the food on which they are reared." * 



Since 1873 still greater change has been effected in trout- 

 breeding. There is no longer any question as to how the fish are 



1 Domesticated Trout, page 3. 



