WHY THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN. 



When I began fishculture in 1868, by buying a farm 

 near Honeoye Falls; Monroe County, N. Y., to begin 

 raising trout, there was little available literature on 

 the subject. The only book I knew of was a book 

 entitled "American Fishculture, embracing all the de- 

 tails of artificial breeding and rearing of trout, the cul- 

 ture ©f salmon, shad and other fishes," by Thaddeus 

 Ndrris. It was published that same year and gave 

 what was then known of the subject, and by its feeble 

 light I began work, but found that I had it all to learn. 



Fifteen miles west of me a man was breeding trout, 

 but he did not approve of what he considered an in- 

 vasion of his particular domain, and no information 

 'Tould be had in that quarter ; so I learned my lesson by 

 many expensive experiments and mistakes. 



The sale of eggs and fry was the most profitable part 

 of trout farming then, and Mr. A. S. Collins, Dr. J. H. 

 Slack and I called a meeting to agree upon a scale of 

 prices. The preliminary meeting was held in New 

 York in 1870, but the following year we met in Albany 

 and organized The American Fishculturists' Associa- 

 tion, with some twenty members. Papers on fishcul- 

 ture were read, but the sale of eggs and fry did not 

 come up; we took a broader course. Massachusetts, 

 New York, Connecticut and other States had organ- 

 ized Fish Commissions, and we adopted a resolution 

 that the general Government should have something of 

 the kind, and appointed Mr. George Shepard Page c^ 



