16 FISH CULTURE. 



difficult to enforce a law which does not appeal to the 

 moral sense of the people. In most foreign countries the 

 fish, living in a stream running through occupied lands, 

 are held to be the landlord's private property, as much as 

 the grass he never sowed, or the trees he never planted. 

 So that every man or boy who poaches upon his neighbor's 

 streams knows that he is a thief — feels that he is a thief, 

 and is punished as a thief. In such countries the streams 

 are productive properties. Productive to the owner in fish 

 or in rental — productive to the commonwealth in that, 

 being husbanded and protected against indiscriminate 

 slaughter, they add to the food of the people. I am 

 clearly of the opinion that no legislation will be effectual 

 in making trout abundant in our streams, save that which 

 makes them in certain waters and on certain conditions- 

 private property, and as such protects them. 



