i6 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



Atlantic coast. Striped bass are also common there. 

 The salmon and the brown trout have been introduced 

 into Australia, the rainbow trout into England and Ger- 

 many with marked success, and if more examples are 

 required I would refer to the introduction of the brown 

 trout of Europe into America ; but these are enough to 

 show that the so-called artificial breeding of fish is a 

 valuable industry if carried on intelligently. 



The broad, unqualified assertion that "an acre of 

 water is more valuable than an acre of land," started by 

 some enthusiastic fishculturist years ago, is liable to 

 hurt the cause of fishculture if used seriously. There 

 can be no such comparison. Land and water are val- 

 uable for what they will produce ; some land is worth- 

 less and so is some water, yet we must admit that the 

 latter might produce more food than it does, for out- 

 side of Great Salt Lake I do not know of any American 

 waters, unless alkaline ones, which will not produce 

 food of some kind fit for the use of man, while I do 

 know of barren sands that would not grow an ounce of 

 food. The fact is that some acres of water are worth 

 more than some acres of land, and vice versa. There is 

 no fixed rule or ratio of values. I know of a spot where 

 springs well up on about 40 acres of swamp land within 

 as many miles of New York City, and make a splendid 

 trout stream, which I would prefer to an equal amount 

 of the best farming land in the State ; brt that is an ex- 

 ception. The Great Lakes do not yield as valuable prod- 

 ucts as an equal area of the best farming land. But then 

 the Great Lakes are in a state of nature, the fishes in 

 them are not selected, and worthless species prey upon 

 the more valuable ones. Perhaps that's not a fair com- 

 parison, and I wish to be fair. Take the mill-pond of 20 

 acres. Here the water may be drawn off and in some 



