v INTRODUCTION. 



work then written upon the subject. The result of book-farm- 

 ing is proverbial ; that of book fish-farming is equally disas- 

 trous. Yet far be it from us, especially at the commencement 

 of a treatise upon the subject, to ignore the value of technical 

 works; they are much, but not all; and the preparation of the 

 reader for their full comprehensio*n is only to be "obtained at 

 the pond side and in the hatching-house, where, and where 

 alone, the thousand minutiae of the work of the fish-farmer can 

 be observed and thoroughly learned. 



In the following pages we hope to present to our readers, as 

 far as can be presented in a volume, the theory and practice of 

 fish culture the theory as we understand it, and the practice 

 as we have performed it at our fish farm near Blooinsbury, N. J. 

 This farm was purchased by us in August, 1867, of Mr. Thad- 

 deus Norris, a gentleman well-known both as an author and 

 angler. The place was in an unfinished condition, but one pond 

 had been erected and stocked with a few hundred sickly fishes. 

 At first, our undertaking was anything but prosperous. Our 

 stock fishes died by dozens; our spawn, from want of proper 

 knowledge of the theory of impregnation, and the sickly con- 

 dition of our parent fishes, perished by thousands. Musk rats 

 bored their way through our improperly-constructed banks; a 

 flood carried away thousands from our badly-located hatching 

 house, and, finally, during our absence from home, some kind in- 

 dividuals relieved us of a large number of our finest fishes. 



Far, however, from being discouraged at this multiplicity of 

 misfortunes, we at once set ourselves to work after each new dis- 

 aster to ascertain its cause and prevent its recurrence, and we 

 are happy to state that we have met with no repetition of any 

 of these evils. Our undertaking has for two years past been in 

 every respect a perfect success ; and we have now on hand at 

 least thirty thousand trout, from three to eighteen inches in 



