368 A Walk from 



course, they get back with large interest and profit 

 from the tenant-farmers of the river. As a proof of the 

 enhanced production of the Tay fisheries under this 

 cultivation the fact will suffice, that they now rent for 

 14,000 a year against 11,000 under the old system. 



Salmon-breeding is doubtless destined to rank with 

 sheep-culture and cattle-culture in the future. The 

 remotest colonies of Great Britain are moving in the 

 matter with vigor and almost enthusiasm. Vessels 

 have been constructed on purpose to convey this fair 

 and mottled stock of British rivers to those of Australia 

 and New Zealand. In France, fish-farming has become 

 a large and lucrative occupation. I hope our own 

 countrymen, who plume themselves on going a-head in 

 utilitarian enterprises, will show the world what they 

 can do in this. Surely our New England men, who 

 claim to lead in American industries and ingenuities, 

 will not suffer half a million acres of river-pasturage to 

 run to waste for another half century, when it would fold 

 and feed millions of salmon. Once they herded in the 

 Connecticut in such multitudes that a special stipula- 

 tion was inserted in the indentures of apprentices in the 

 vicinity of the river that they should not be obliged to eat 

 salmon more than a certain number of times in a week. 

 Now, if a salmon is caught between the mouth and 

 source of the river, it is blazoned forth in the news- 



