The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-08-12
FISH CULTURE.
Hints Regarding the Propagation and
Breeding of Fish.
From The 81. Louis Times.


shall be said for the man who causes two
fish to swim where none swan before ?
The cultivation and consumption of fish
enter as important elements into the
question of the food supply, and the sub
ject of pissiculture, is yearly attracting
greater attention, although by no means,
as yet, has it excited the attention that it
deserves and that it is sure to receive
when the popular mind shall be fully
awakened to its Importance. Referring
to the blade of grass comparison, it will
once be admitted that a fish is much
more valuable than blade of grass, and
it may also be said that it costs compara-
lively little to raise him. 1t is only
necessary to give him fair start, and to
let him alone in order that he shall in
crease and multiply and replenish the
rivers with food that is free to anybody
and needed by everybody. There are
but few of Gods gifts to man that furnish
him with fesh-producing and brain-sus-
tanning nutriment in q more compact,
portable and convenient form than fish.
The farm that raises this cropis free-no
man owns it to the exclusion of another
lit requires no manure or any manner
of cultivation crop is sure, self-re-
newing and everlasting one, unless one
wantonly and wickedly waste and destroy
it. .,,. .,i-si
This wanton and wicked waste and de-
struction are the great drawbacks to a
plentiful fish supply. Because the waters
are absolutely free, every man feels him
self at liberty to exert his utmost efforts,
in season and out of season, by all sorts
of unhallowed pot-hunting contrivances,
to- get possession of the greatest possible
portion of the fnny prey. The selfish
ness and greediness of mankind are re-
markably manifest in this matter, and
the result is that our lakes, rivers and
brooks are gradually depopulated of their
scaly inhabitants, until the scarcity of
fish becomes cause of general conf
plant.
The people are waking up, all over the
country, to. the necessity of remedying
this evil, not only by putting a stop to
water waste and destruction, but by re-
newing and enlarging the fish supply by
means of stocking the lakes and rivers
with young fish. Attempts are being
made on an extensive scale to iii eli the
available waters of the country with
Young fish, including those that are
foreign, as well as those that arc indigo
nous, to the various localities. The sys-
tenn under which this great wor!. is being
accomplished is known as pisciculture,
or the breeding and rearing of fish. AL
though comparatively new industry III
this country, it has been practiced in
China from the earliest times of which
we have any record, and has been brought
to state of remarkable perfection in
Italy, France and England.
The style which is now universally
adopted for fish breed, is the artificial
formulation of the eggs Of fishes, which
is said to have been discovered in the
fourteenth century by Dom Pinchon, a
French monk, who bred fish in wooden
boxes having ends of wickerwork, and
the bottoms covered with sand, in which
the ova were deposited.
The first attempts at the industrial use
of the art were made in Hanover, and
from that time and place it has spread
and grown, until its beneficial effects are
visible over the greater part of the civil
lied world.
In this country the first recorded ex-
pertinent in the artificial propagation of
fish was made in South Carolina, in 1904.
Many years after there were successful
efforts in this direction in Ohio, which
were followed in 1859 by the splendid
achievements of Ainsworth and Seth
Green in New York, Livingston Stone in
New Hampshire, and several others.
Seth Green is the great apostle of pisci-
culture in the United States, and to his
efforts, more than to these of any other
man, is the country indebted for the
present progress of this important indus
try, and for the widespread diffusion of
its benefits. By the act of congress of
February 8, 1871, United States COM
missioner of fish and fisheries was provid-
ed for, and Prof. Baird, of the Smithso-
nian institution, was appointed commits
sioner. State action on the subject had
been first TAKEN however, the New Eng
land States being the first to move.
Their example was followed by others,
until fish commissions were established
by lawin fifteen States, viz: Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia, Alabama, Ohio Michigan and
California. The efforts of these commits
sions have been directed to the stocking
of rivers and ponds, to the erecting OF
fshways around falls and dams, and to
the procuring Of protective legislation
forbiddipg the taking Of fish during the
spawning season, and regulating the use
of NETS and more destructive means of
capture. AS evidence of the success OF
these efforts, it may be mentioned that
since, 1867, whenyScth Green first turned
100000 young shad into the Connecti-
cut, the shad in that. river. have largely
increased, and the "net" results have
been much greater than heretofore. In
the Hudson the experiment has also
been very successful, us was abundantly
proved by the catch of the recent sea-
sons, when these excellent fish were so
abundant that they were sold at whole
sale on the bank of the river for as low
as one-third of the rates that had ruled
previously.
The result was favorably felt here in
st. Louis, where shad could be procured
during the spring as cheap as our home
fish or those from the lakes.
The modu$-opcrandi of fish propaga-
ton has been frequently explained, but
is not so extensively understood that a
brief description of the process would be
uninteresting to the readers of the Times.
Il