84 KEPORT — 1864. 



than it is to the old countries, such as all the European states, and that it has 

 been pursued, as far as they are concerned, with great success. _ Dr. George 

 Bennett, in the third annual ' Report of the Acclimatization Society of New- 

 Holland,' has well observed, " We have lately heard of acclimatization dinners in 

 London and other places, but a dinner in New South Wales of food naturalized in 

 the colony occurs every day, and a hner display cannot be surpassed in any 

 country." Few countries were so badly supplied by nature with useful animals 

 and plants as the Australian continent ; and while we do not receive in Europe a 

 single indigenous product for our tables, either animal or vegetable, from Australia, 

 which in this respect has added nothing to the comfort of civilized man, no country 

 has been more richly supplied with the useful products of other parts of the world ; 

 for not only have the natural productions of the temperate regions of Europe been 

 largely introduced, but even the flowers and fruits of tropical and subtropical 

 regions. 



There is no doubt that the introduction into Australia of animals long domesticated 

 in Europe is far more easy than that of semidomesticated animals from countries in a 

 ruder state of society. Perhaps this may explain why the leading animals and 

 plants to which Dr. Bennett refers in this' Report, and which, be it observed, have 

 all been introduced by individual enterprise, have succeeded so much better than 

 the later attempts to introduce such animals as the Llama and various ornamental 

 Mammalia and birds. Among other attempts referred to are the blackbirds, 

 thrushes, starlings, and skylarks of Europe : these latter seem to be established in 

 the Botanic Garden, but it is doubtful whether such birds can find their appro- 

 priate food except in cultivated gardens or near the towns. 



On the other hand, it is to be observed that the inti-oduction into a new countiy 

 of domestic or semidoniestic animals is not always an unmixed advantage. Thus, 

 the domestic pig has been completely naturalized in New Zealand : there its great 

 multiplication has rendered it so mischievous a pest to the sheep-farmer, from its 

 following the ewes and eating the newly-dropped lambs, that the flock-masters 

 have been compelled to employ persons to destroy the pigs, paying for their 

 destruction at the rate of so much per tail ; many thousands are thus destroyed in 

 a single season. Indeed it has been proved by Dr. Hooker's interesting paper "On 

 the Replacement of Species," that the introduction of a new animal or plant often 

 results in its destroying and taking the place of some previous inhabitant, thus 

 rendering its introduction a matter of doubtful advantage, or at all events a ques- 

 tion to be approached with considerable caution. 



It is, however, manifest that, on the whole, more useful results are to be 

 obtained from the introduction of races already domesticated into countries to 

 which they have not reached, than from the attempt to acclimatize animals for 

 the most part either unsuited to the climate or capable only of an inferior degree 

 of domestication, or inferior in quality to those which are already in possession of 

 the ground. 



Under the third head, the cidtivation of fish, I have very little to observe, 

 although the subject is unquestionably one of gi-eat importance. But as yet we 

 have very little practical information upon the question ; and I consider that the 

 advocates of the system are only for the present feeling their way, as the experi- 

 ments have not been pursued for a suflicient length of time to produce any posi- 

 tive or reliable results. To replenish rivers in which the flsh which fornierly 

 inhabited them have been destroyed, it is necessary closely to study the habits of 

 the flsh, and to imitate as much as possible their natiu-al proclivities. 



Thus, for example, it appears to me that, when attempting to introduce young 

 artificially hatched fish into a river, we should place them in the smallest stream- 

 lets, where the fish would themselves deposit their ova, and not in the vvider parts 

 of the stream, where they are liable to injury from various causes. Again, the 

 notion of fishing the breeding-fish out of a river, collecting their eggs and artifi- 

 cially impregnating them, seems to me an unnatural mode of proceeding, and such 

 as is not practised in the cultivation of any other animal. I cannot see any prac- 

 tical advantage that can possibly be derived from it. 



For the replenishing of worii-out fisheries of oysters and pearl-sliells, all that 

 seema necessary or advantageous to be done is to place round the bed twigs and 



