FISH HATCHIJSTG. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the few years which have intervened since the 

 discovery of fish culture, its practice has advanced with 

 rapid strides, and although it is still little more than in 

 its infancy ; the laws which govern its management have 

 been so far ascertained and applied that it is now an 

 established art, capable of yielding vast results for the 

 benefit of mankind. The days of doubt and uncertainty 

 have passed away, and numerous 'experiments lending 

 invariably to the same end have established it on a firm 

 basis. For a time cautions persons, even- when most 

 enthusiastic could not help questioning in their own 

 minds what the final outcome would be, and whether all 

 that was predicted for the new undertaking would be 

 realized, but success in all well considered and properly 

 conducted attempts has swept away fear and hesitation, 

 and experience may now be said to have fully confirmed 

 the highest hopes of the most sanguine. The possibilities 

 which fish culture suggested were so far beyond what can 

 be obtained in other fields of human labor, so greatly 

 exceeded the best results in agriculture that it seemed 

 impossible that they could be realized, or that this enter- 

 prise would have remained so long undiscovered or un- 

 developed. But day after day and year after year the 

 theory has been put in practical operation, where all its 

 steps could be and were accurately noted, and the incredi- 

 ble increase and profit obtained left but one conclusion 

 possible. No persons could be more cautious, more slow 



