GROWTH OF HERBIVOROUS FISHES. 349 



ous fishes require some kind of meat, or a mixture in which 

 meat or offal forms a part. 



The fishes are fed in the morning and evening of each day, 

 and, as they grow very fast, it becomes quite " a chore" for 

 the boys and girls to gather them enough herbage, for they 

 are so ravenous as to be appropriately compared to the silk- 

 worms when forming cocoons. With generous feeding they 

 attain to the weight of two or three pounds in fifteen days, 

 when they cease growing, and are sold alive throughout the 

 great centres of population. 



The fish-culturists of Kiang-si raise uniquely fishes of a 

 gotit most exquisite. The sea-rabbit is the name given by 

 them to a species at once the most delicate and prolific. 



Fish-culture, or pisciculture, seems natural to the Chinese, 

 who conduct the industry skillfully and successfully, culti- 

 vating numerous species of herbivorous fishes, which they 

 raise with great facility. Herbivorous fishes acclimatize 

 much easier than the carnivorous. The French and other 

 Europeans have commenced to import herbivorous fishes from 

 Kiang-si ; the red and gold fishes, originally imported from 

 China, may be considered a luxury to the eye, and their sur- 

 prisingly rapid increase in numbers without expense has in- 

 duced the French to import such food-fishes as are prolific 

 and of excellent flavor. The fresh-water fishes of commerce 

 in China form much lighter and more digestible food than 

 any fresh-water fishes of either Europe or America. They 

 have cultivated their waters, and raised fishes for so many 

 hundred years, and perhaps thousands, that their system is 

 said to be much more perfect than any now practiced in Eu- 

 rope or America ; and as France has sent an agent to China 

 to study up the subject from an Oriental point of view, it 

 might be advisable for our government to instruct its embas- 

 sadors to make all the discoveries possible, and report them 

 for the benefit of fish-culture in the United States. 



