FISH-CULTURE IN AMERICA. 365 



food-fishes in the waters throughout the Union. Reports 

 from the French government have been forwarded to the 

 President, and by him they have been laid before Congress, 

 so that the subject will doubtless soon be acted on nationally. 



Through the efforts of individual states, much has been 

 done within the past three years. Influenced by an intelli- 

 gent enterprise for which the states of New England are 

 justly celebrated, each of those states has appointed a Fisher- 

 ies Commission, and the following extract from a report of 

 progress in one state may be accepted as a fair sample of all : 



" Of the 40 ? 000 spawn recently placed for incubation in the 

 Cold Spring trout-ponds at Charleston, New Hampshire, for 

 the Connecticut River, the first salmon were hatched Decem- 

 ber llth, 1865. The eyes of the embryo salmon were first 

 clearly seen in the egg about November 25th. The eggs 

 were taken from the parent salmon on the Miramichi Octo- 

 ber 10th, making 62 days as the period of incubation.* The 

 first trout which broke shell at these hatching-works this 

 season came out on November 9th, 35 days from the time 

 when the roe and milt were shed by the parent fishes." 



Fish-culture is a success. It is not only triumphant, but it 

 is almost miraculous. Waters hitherto worse than useless 

 may be made a hundred fold as profitable as any equal num- 

 ber of acres of land, and with not a tithe of the labor. But 

 these truths, so palpably patent to many intellectual minds 

 of the present day, are almost a sealed book to the mass of 

 the rising generation. In view, therefore, of these facts, and 

 the depressing truth that the fishes of the coast and inland 

 waters are annually decreasing, while by immigration and 

 natural causes our nation is increasing in population faster 

 than any other on the globe, is it not advisable to make the 

 art of fish-culture a study in the agricultural colleges ? 



Up to the present time the inauguration of plans for pro- 



* Mr. Francis and other fish-culturists are not in favor of employing water 

 so warm as to hatch in so short a time, believing that the young fish are not 

 s > hardy as those hatched in colder water. 



