On Stocking. 25 



tacksmen fish nets in saltwater, and only as sett 1 

 by the said corporate body, net and cruive fishing 

 in fresh water being abolished, and rod fishing 

 for salmon vested in the said body under such 

 limitations as will prevent any gross interference 

 with either private or public rights there is 

 little hope of any rapid improvement of salmon 

 fisheries by scientific fish-culture. 



Each district can only produce a certain gross 

 weight of fish, and this can be more cheaply and 

 quite as certainly captured from half a dozen 

 stations as from a hundred. The total number of 

 fish caught depends on the gross produce of the 

 rivers in the district. The multiplication of fishing 

 stations is merely a needless multiplication of the 

 expense not to increase the total catch, but to 

 decrease the value of rights already existing, and 

 in this matter of late years on the Scottish coast 

 the Crown has not been blameless. To those who 

 know the cost of wear and tear of sea nets, the 

 suggestion that the profits of the Scotch salmon 

 fisheries would be more than doubled under such 

 management will not appear unreasonable, and the 

 equalisation of the assessment that would then be 

 practical would enable fish-culturists to double or 

 treble the total yield of salmon in the district, 

 this yield being controlled by the available area 

 of the feeding ground for salmon fry ground of 



1 This term refers to the conditions of the lease. 



