American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-04-19
NO. 16.
Value Of Fish Food.

SO SOON as a fish is Matched and is
turned loose in pond or stream, he OBJ
'ains his own living. Some species live
on the product of vegetable matter, being
ihe only harvestcrs of the fields of the sea
IN "hlcn there is yearly growth of nu-
tr1tious 1000 N an amount rarely estimat-
eu- VI these, few, such as white fish
food, but they are principally useful as
furnishing the support of more desirable
varieties. On the land, grain and grass
are grown to feed cattle which are AGAIN
converted into butchers meat to feed the
human race. In the water the same course
may be pursued, or may be carried one
step further. Analogous to the system OF
tillage by blowing under clover for
manure, the product of water vegetables
may be consumed by crustaceous and in
ferior fish, which again may be left as
prey to larger and more marketable kinds.
And it may be suggested that rotation of
crops may be as advantageOusly intrOduc-
ed in pisciculture as in agriculture. In a
portion of France, where the land is low
and can be overfowed at pleasure, by a
system of dyking, crops of grain and cells
are alternafed, the latter being the most
profitable, but this is only the germ of the
true principle. When one sort of root or
grain or vegetable is repeated ON the same
land, it is found that the soil is exhausted
of its food, while its enemies are aug
mented in number. Identieally the same
thing, occurs with fish when they are
kept in one locality. They use up their
food and increase the list of their foes So
soon as this happens they suffer, and
should be supplanted by different spe-
cies, living on different food, and having a
totally different class of enemies. Wher-
ever this has been DONE the effect has been
surprising, the new species increasing en-
ormously for the first few years, and then
meeting the fate of their predecessors. 1t
was on this theory that your Commission
ers acted in introducing black bass into
some of the lakes in the wilderness of this
State, which were once inhabited by
speckled trout, but which have long since
been practically depopulated, and a sim
like result in a less degree may be OBJ
tanned by introducing food artificially for
those varieties which already exist in any
range of waters and have exhausted their
natural supply of nutriment, and this
either by sowing of marine seeds, or by
sowing of small fish, whichever may be
necessary; but this course leaves the num-
Der of enemies undiminished. 1t is curl
Gus fact that the stomachs of fish are often
found to be entirely empty of food, and
the migratory varieties seem hardly to
feed at all while preparing to spawn.
This would imply either that they
digest very rapidly, or can go a
ls1g time without nutriment, and,
probably, both of these deductions
are true. Heat and motion are the main
consumers of food, for animal bodies are
physically machines, which must be sup
piled with fuel if motion is to be genera
ted, and will wear out with friction un-
less the waste is restored. A man or a
horse can only perform his quota of work
if his body is thoroughly nourished, and,
on the other hand, neither needs nor can
digest his full amount of food unless he
works. The terrestrial animals are warm
bloOded and active, many of them, in
their natural state, getting their food by
the chase, whereas fish are cold -blooded,
and although occasionally making long
journeys, are ordinarily quiet. A trout
will remain for weeks in pond or in one
hole in brook, and pike will lie
among the weeds, as motionless as log,
for hours, unless he makes a dart to seize
his prey, after which he usually returns to
the same spot; possessing to the utmost
animal capacity with one exception, that
of hearing) all the senses, namely: seeing,
smelling, feeling and tasting, he resumes
his occupation of unmoving, sleepless
watchfulness. The result is, that while
warm-blooded animals need large supply
of nourishment, the cold FLOODED ones con-
vert nearly all their food into an augmen-
tation of their own size, and grow
in proportion without wasting more
than very trif1ing proportion in
sustaining the heat of their bodies
in supplying the waste caused by friction.
1t is therefore a mistake ever to feed fish on
animal food unless it be perfectly worth
less refuse, for it is reversing the order of
natural economy. Cattle are only raised
and fattened at high expense to the re-
sources of the world, requiring large ex-
penditure of human labor and wasting
heavy proportion in the operation, where
as fish, if left to themselves, or properly
fed, would only consume what costs moth
ing in ITSELF and what could not be other
wise utilized. They should directly or ul-
Craze the meadows of the sea, the
production from which is ordinarily left
to destruction and waste, and is not at
present turned to mans profit. Nor is the
flesh of the inhabitants of the water less
when obtained than that of the
beasts upon the earth. Pound for pound,
it contains the same amount of nutriment
and will sustain human life equally well,
while in certain particulars it possesses a
1t supplies phosphorus to
the brain and nerves, an element which
is not obtained from most kinds of food,
but which is as essential to perfect health
as gluten and starch; while at the same
time it is so much more digestible than
the meat of terrestrial animals or birds,
that it is used as modified form of fast
ing, and at certain seasons of the year is
more wholesome than grOsser food. A
wise economy of the resources of the
world will, therefore, as population in
creases, compel attention to this easily Sc
cured "harvest of the sea."-Ertrdct from
a Report Of the Nec York Commissioners Of