The Portland daily press., 1876-10-19
Ia Fish Culture Profitable.

We will say that you have spring of wa
ter on your farm, OF brook from which you
can draw into your ponds the water that will
run through an inch pipe; you have con-
atructed your ponds thirty feet long by ten
feet wide, capable of holding two and one
half feet of water, and have determined to
experiment little as an amateur pisccutur-
list. These ponds suitably divided into COM
partments are amply sufficient to hold four
thousand trout. You have purchased each
year for four years 1000 spawn at the average
price of So per thousand, and have Matched
and reared them successfully. In addition to
the bits from your table, curds, sour milk,
and a large occasional supply of food for them
from the animals you have killed, you have
purchased $25 worth of refuse meat. This is
a large estimate, but let us make this side of
the account as large as it will possibly bear.
The labor and time you have expended in
taking care of your trout, and in fitting up
your ponds, has been trifling, and you have
been amply repaid for all this in the pleasure
you have experienced in seeing them thrive
under your treatment. Your total cash out
lay for tie four years has been fifty-seven
dollars. Now what ought you TO have in your
three year olds, weighing at least one and
half pounds each; you have 2,250 pounds of
trout, which at present prices is worth in the
market and will sell for six hundred and sew
enty-fve dollars. In the summer time it is
worth as much as fresh salmon, and that is
worth from 40 to so cents per pound. Reck-
oning at 40 cents il is worth $500. Then you
have III addition to this 1000 yearlings, which
are worth at least $50, and 1000 small fry
which are worth twenty dollars more.
Calling your trout worth only 20 cents per
pound your fifty-seven dollars has proved an
Investment which has brought you property
worth five hundred and thirty dollars. Sup
posing from some cause or other one half of
your fishes die, or are stolen by somebody's
neighbours boys, or that they do not grow to
more than one half the size you expected
they would. Even then your $57 has yielded
you return of more than 400 per cent. So,
looking at the matter from whichever way
you will, you must, 1 think, see that the
statement which some one has made, that
fish culture paws profit of 1000 per cent,
or that fish can be raised and sold in our
markets at two cents per pound are not alto
gether wild and fanciful statements. The
net profits of trout propagation at the estab-
lishment of Mr.. Green, in Lining ton coun-
ty, New York, were $1,000 in 1866, S. 900 in
1867, and 1000 in 1868. The property
where his ponds are located was purchased
a few years ago for two thousand dollars, and
when his operations had fairly commenced
he accepted proposition for six thousand
dollars for half an interest in the works.
Stephen G. Ainsworth the pioneer piscicul-
turist of this country says, with good spring
of one half an inch of water, one may raise
all the trout he needs for his table with tri-
fling expense. DIR. j. N. Slack of New Jer-
sey regards pisciculture as no longer an ex-
pertinent, but as pursuit quite as certain as
agriculture, and at present much more prof.
able.-From an address before the Vermont
ish Culturists Convention.