A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF INSECTICULTURE, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE MULTIPLICATION OF INSECTS AVAILABLE AS FOOD FOR ANIMALS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st July 1879. A communication
from abroad by Jacob Adolphe Isaac Vignier, of Paris, in the Republic of
France.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF INSECTICULTURE, AND THE
APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE MULTIPLICATION OF INSECTS AVAILABLE AS FOOD
FOR ANIMALS." A communication from abroad by Jacob Adolphe Isaac Vignier, of
Paris, in the Republic of France..
This Invention relates to a process for multiplying those insects which when alive
serve as food for fish of every description, and in particular for the fry of trout,
salmon, and the like, and also as food for trout and salmon themselves during the
period when they are becoming developed and are attaining the size and weight
required by the consumer.
In carrying out this Invention green water is produced in a tank of suitable
construction by means of human fecal matter allowed to remain in stagnant water,
which forms a substance in which the various insects upon which the fish feed
prefer to deposit their eggs. The rapid developement of these eggs furnishes
considerable quantities of the insects alive, the green stagnant water being favorable
to their incubation, after which the insects are transferred to running water.
This part of the Invention may be carried into effect in various ways. For
example, it is simply necessary to arrange an upper tank containing the green
stagnant water for the deposition and hatching of the eggs, and to establishi means,
such for example, as a jet or stream, for removing or conducting the insects when
they are developed to the running water in a lower tank containing the fish to be
fed.
The larvae of gnats, tipula, ephemera, dragon flies, and the like, resulting from
the eggs, which are deposited in abundance by these insects upon certain fresti
materials added to the stagnant water in the upper reservoir, may also be obtained
by the addition of drainings of dung hills or the liquor flowing from the dung of
cows, horses, and other farm animals, in addition to the substances which continue
o be formed upon the green water.
As before mentioned a jet or stream of water flowing continuously may be
mployed in order to effect the removal to the lower tanks containing the fish, of

page_text: all these insects, the continuous generation or evolution of which is thus incited
and encouraged by the removal of the living products which are continuously
renewed.
In order to carry on this evolution of insects as long as possible, even in the cold
season, an arrangement resembling a hot house may be adopted or other suitable
means may be substituted therefor, for concentrating heat on the green water or
drainings of dung hills in order to continue the fecundation of the eggs deposited
by the insects.
When the cold weather arrives it is necessary to provide the fish with insects of
another description, and for this purpose it is simply necessary to place leaves of
vegetables or leaves of trees, such, for example, as the leaves of the poplar tree, in a
suitably constructed tank of running water, the said leaves serving as a bait to
encourage and incite the deposition of the eggs of fresh water shrimps and the like,
which when incubated or developed are carried away by means of the continuous
jet or stream into the running water in the tanks containing the fishes to be fed,
as before described.
The trout and salmon are thus supplied during the whole year with living food
in sufficient quantity by means of insects perfectly adapted to their requirements,
whereby they are rapidly brought to the size and shape, good flavour, and weight
required by the consumers.
The process of insecticulture is applicable to the multiplication of insects without
regard to their ultimate distinction, as they may be used for feeding birds, and also
fish of other descriptions than those hereinbefore referred to.