FISH CULTURE.*
one reasons for not heading this article with the title of the book under review are, that we formed an erroneous idea of its contents from that title, and we do not wish to expose our readers to the same danger. We connected water-farming with irrigation, a sub- ject in which we, personally, have no interest. But both we and all the world have a strong interest in the fish question,—a desire to see our streams fully tenanted, and one of our articles of food increased and cheapened. Dr. Peard writes soundly and pleasantly on the culture of salmon, trout, oysters, and lobsters. We cannot go with him where the pond fishes and pike are concerned, for we think he overrates the qualities of their flesh, and leaves out of sight the cookery wanted to make them palatable. Till English cooks in general have been educated, there is not much use in recommending them to try the materials. which may succeed in other countries. And if professed cooks are often ignorant, the wives and daughters of the lower class, who are most in need of such new articles of food, are still leasable to maker use of them. It must always be remembered that this national helplessness is one great cause of scarcity. If fish becomes cheaper and more plentiful, it will be accepted gladly as a change. But hitherto barrenness of invention has been most conspicuous in the treatment of fish, and while meats have the choice between being roast and boiled, fish seem condemned to the absolute monotony of the latter. And this tells upon them severely. The Scotch servants who bargained against having salmon too often represented correctly the natural aversion to sameness. A com- pulsory diet of fish on certain days leads Roman Catholics to refuse it all other times. Yet the variety of a Blackwell dinner carries the palate unjaded through an unbroken succession of dainties, and it is not till the next morning that critical reflection succeeds to enjoyment.
While, therefore, we approve of the new efforts for the propa- gation of fish in our streams and along our coasts, we fear that the immediate effect on our scale of living will be smaller than Dr. Peard expects. This need not prevent our welcoming his array of facts and practical suggestions. Beginning with our salmon rivers, he observes that the growth of young salmon ought, above all things, to be protected. It has been calculated that not one egg out of three thousand produces a full-grown fish. A trout was. once;caught in the spawning beds, and 600 salmon ova were squeezed out of its stomach. Another time, 70,000 eggs, which were deposited in a beautifully clear stream, were all devoured by the embryo of the dragon-fly. The artificial system of hatching of course protects the eggs against such a fate, and it is said that the pisciculturist can send one thousand, smelts to sea out of the three thousand eggs which, when the salmon is left to itself, give one fish only. The smolts thus reared are often larger than those produced naturally. The cost of rearing and feeding them is only about a farthing each. Dr. Peard gives us the balance-sheet of an imaginary salmon river worked on his principles by a co-operation of all the landed proprietors and a yearly subscription for general expenses. The length of the Practical Maw-Farming. By W. Pearl, M.D., LL.B. Edinburgh: Edmonton and Dongla.s. 1868. stream is taken as thirty-two miles, and, the land on either bank being in different hands, the whole may be divided into sixty-four shares. A yearly call of 5/. on each share would produce 3201. a year, and this would suffice for the construction of the nursery .during the first years and the working expenses afterwards. Every spring from 80,000 to 100,000 smelts might be turned out of the nursery and sent down to the sea, so that when the proprietors of the stream began to fish it during the fifth summer of the experiment, they might count on eleven tons of salmon being the result of the season. Putting the price at 8d. per pound, this -would give almost 40 per cent. on the original outlay. Although this particular balance-sheet is imaginary, Dr. Peard has good data to go upon. He calculates, too, that a trout stream, four miles in length, might be worked with such advantage as to give a return of 50/. a year, clear of expenses, on an original outlay of 1001. This view, no doubt, is supported by the accounts given of -two trout streams in the United States. One of them was lately sold for 8,500 dollars, and contained so many fish that almost every cast was rewarded by a trout of a pound or two in weight. This stream does not yield a volume of more than thirty square inches of water. The other stream hardly exceeds a mile in length, and is said to contain 320,000 trout. Much of this astonishing result was obtained by damming up the stream in places and feeding the Bah. Yet both these devices might be tried with English brooks, and if there are no fish in them already, plenty of eggs are to be had for the asking.
More than this must be done with the salmon rivers. One of -the chief obstacles to the growth of these noble fish has been the existence of high dams and weirs. The ladders and passes, to which Dr. Peard devotes some slime, have not yet opened all the upper waters. Although it is said that "it would be possible to take salmon over the Falls of Niagara, if the passage for them was -so constructed that they could rest on their journey," a slight -difference in gradient is enough to defeat the object of a ladder. it is most essential that all the landowners on a river should combine and should act together, as otherwise those who own the weirs and "dams will be more likely to insist on their old monopoly, and the only result of bringing salmon into the rivers will be that the owners nearest the sea will profit. Dr. Peard refers in illustration to the ease of the Severn, the purest and largest of our rivers, well adapted for salmon, and watched with the utmost care. Yet because the landholders have not united, "the fish increase so slowly that a quarter of a century must elapse before this river will possess anything approaching to an adequate stock." The same want of combined interests as has allowed each proprietor to till all the salmon he could find in his water has been antagonistic to artificial breeding. No one would subscribe towards giving his neighbour a fuller basket. Yet the first cost of salmon culture for such ts stream as the Severn must be heavy, and the returns in 41 large river are not so high in proportion as in a small one. Moreover, the work of preparing a small stream for breeding purposes is much more simple. By arranging blocks of stone -at convenient intervals a succession of pools might be formed, and the bed of the stream, instead of being encumbered by .erratic boulders, would be laid out in a way at once artistic and suitable. The sketch given by Dr. Peard of the process of -collecting the seed, vitalizing it, and transporting it if necessary -from one place to another, completes the experiment. After this we come back with confidence to the balance-sheet, the favourable aspect of which induced us to listen readily to Dr. Peard'a teaching.
In some respects France has set us a good example, not only -with regard to the mode of packing and transmitting ova, but also in her oyster culture. The oyster is so great a favourite, and the price of it has risen so much of late years, that those chapters of Dr. Peard's book which deal with this subject demand especial attention. We read that the French crop of oysters was totally ex- hausted twenty years ago. Over-dredgiug had ruined the best beds, and there was scarcely an oyster to be found upon them. M. Coste was sent by the French Government to inspect the various places -where oyster farming was practised, and some of the old beds were soon afterwards planted and restocked. At the Ile de Rhe oyster .culture was begun in 1858, on foreshores which till then were pro- fitless mudbanks. They are now occupied by more than 4,000 farms, some of which are said to yield 1,000 per cent, on the out- lay. At Hayling Island, off the coast of Hampshire, the same experiment has been tried of late. In 1866 two nurseries were prepared for oysters, one on the model of the Lake Fusaro in Italy, the other on the plan followed at the lie de Rhe. The first nursery was laid on a soil of deep, black, and almost fetid mud. This bottom was covered with shingle, on which 50,000 oysters were placed, and over which light hurdles of hazel and brush- wood were fastened horizontally. The other nursery had tiles laid down in it to collect the spat, and a constant though gentle stream ran through it, while the water in the first nursery was still. Whether the tiles were less serviceable than the hurdles, or the time at which the oysters were deposited in the second nursery was too late, or running water impeded the formation of the spat, it is certain that the Fusaro pond proved a mine of wealth, while Vie lie de Rhe pond was a total failure. Late in the autumn of 1866 Dr. Peard found the hurdles of the first nursery literally covered with young oysters, millions upon millions of them clinging fast to the twigs, all thriving and healthy. Such a success naturally suggests its repetition on other parts of the coast and with other kinds of shellfish. The periwinkle is very largely used in London, and it appears from evidence given before the Sea Fisheries Commission that both price and demand have risen. "The supply comes from the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and all round the Scotch and Irish coasts. I remember a circumstance that took place about twenty-four years ago which will give you some idea of the increase. On Whit Mon- day there were only fifty bushels in the market, and it took two days to sell them ; now we sell from 300 to 500 bushels in the same time, and at quite as good a price." It would be still more desirable if artificial means could be tried for increasing the supply of lobsters. Dr. Peard mentions an experiment begun, but hardly carried through, by the manager of the Hayling Island Oyster Company. He had put two dozen lobsters in a pond during the early part of the year, and by the autumn they had given birth to many thousand infants. The pond, however, was not suited to lobster life, and in the winter the whole brood perished. Yet, so far as the trial went, it was not unsuccessful, and Dr. Peard shows that among the larger pools in the rocks laid bare by the ebb there might be many places for rearing young lobsters on a scale corresponding to the demand. "The consumption of these fish is enormous, and as prices are high, they are sought with a ruinous industry which bids fair to exhaust the mine." There is no doubt, we believe, that in Norway every lobster is mortgaged to the English market, and that the very taste is, so to speak, unknown to the inhabitants of a most productive coast. The complaint made by Baron Liebig that England exhausts the wealth of other countries, instead of growing enough to feed herself, is as true in this respect as in many others. We waste, and we have to buy. We think our- selves generous when we are extravagant, and we refuse to be careful for fear of being niggardly. The time must come when all this will have to be changed, and the change would be safer if it were voluntary. Dr. Peard's book enables us to see the policy of economizing some of our resources and creating others, and it is from this point of view that we recommend it to our readers.
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