Fish Culture Compared to Importance with Agriculture
By HOI. ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT
Fish Culture Compared to Importance with Agriculture – Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Speaker, the art of cultivating fish by artificial means is no new thing, it is not an untried theory, resting more in hope than in experience, but has passed from the ‘realm of experiment into absolute certainty. It has become a fixed art, and, although as yet scarcely developed, has grown into a business of considerable magnitude and great importance.
Persons unacquainted with the matter have little idea of the discoveries which have been made and the wonderful successes of those who have devoted themselves to the study and investigation of this subject, and do not appreciate the extent of the influence which it is certain to exercise on the future of this country, a country that is wonderfully blessed in this particular as in all others, and is adapted to fish culture to a degree that exists nowhere.
The older nations had a vague notion of this industry. In China it has been carried on for centuries, as well ages ago as it is now, like most of the discoveries of that unprogressive people. The Romans were scarcely so well informed, and only developed the natural method; and the first real attempts which produced practical results were made in France in quite modern times, when the discoveries of the past were discovered over again.
In that scientific and cultivated nation, however, the matter attracted immediate attention, and its importance was appreciated by a people which has long been forced to make the most of its food resources. The Government took it in hand, and soon satisfied of its practicability, built the national establishment at Arcachon.
At first blunders, of course, were made. Finding uncertainty, an uncertainty arising solely from ignorance, in impregnating and hatching the artificially impregnated eggs, resort was had to collect the ova from the various streams of the country, after it had been deposited there, in the natural method, and developing it under proper supervision and guarded from enemies and disease.
Directions were at the same time published for stripping the parent fish of their eggs, so that the ripe spawn might also be saved from any mature individuals which should happen to be caught.
This plan, however, was unsatisfactory; it was but little more than robbing Peter to pay Paul. Not only was much unripe and worthless spawn taken through ignorance or cupidity, but the natural supply was carried from the streams to such an extent that they were greatly denuded, and were run down to a degree which was hardly made good by the supplies of young fry which were afterward
sent to them from the national establishment.
These errors were, however, corrected in time; greater knowledge and skill were attained, better methods and machinery were invented, and in the end Arcachon became a success, fish- culture triumphed over the obstacles in its way, and many of the waters of France which had been entirely depleted were replenished, and the fisheries were restored to a condition of fruitfulness which they had not known for years, while a most important article of diet was furnished to the people at cheaper rates and in more abundant -quantities.
Up to this time deterioration and increasing scarcity had been the rule, but soon an improvement began which has far more than repaid the expense incurred by the Government and has led to consequences the public value of which cannot be overestimated.
England was not long in following the ex- ample of France. The salmon fishery has been the principal estuary and fresh- water fishery of Great Britain, and it also had been injured by mismanagement and neglect and overwork, Salmon had long been far beyond the reach of all but the wealthier classes, and even they were beginning to experience trouble to obtain as much as they needed at reasonable rates. Streams which had yielded abundantly within the memory of man were comparatively unproductive, and in some instances were absolutely bare of fish.
The Irish and Scotch fisheries were not so badly off as those of England, but even they were reduced far below what they had been. Steps were taken to replenish these, partly by private action, partly by public.
Parliament, appointed boards of fish conservators and an inspector of salmon fisheries and paid liberal salaries and passed wise laws for the protection of the young and the spawning fish.
The consequences were the same as they had been in France, and soon fish became more plenty; the salmon fishery in one river having more than doubled in actual rental in a few years, while the yield was proportionally increased.
Germany, Austria, Russia, all followed the example; all made this a national enterprise and found it to their interest to pay liberally to restock their waters with a means of supplying food to the people which had been so nearly annihilated.
In all, establishments for the artificial propagation of the most valuable varieties are established at various points, and yearly furnish most gratifying evidence of the industrial value of this, which promises to be the most widely beneficial of all the discoveries of modern times; for if it is true that that man is a public benefactor who has made two blades of grass grow where one grew before, much more so is he who has restored to the people a food supply which had almost ceased to exist and the extinction of which was looked upon’ as the necessary consequence of the increase of population, it being expected to expire precisely when it was most needed.
Such is a cursory statement of what has been done abroad. It alone would justify the United States in following the example of the older nations, and taking this matter under national protection. It is essentially a national matter; the States alone cannot take charge of it and manage it efficiently; they cannot even pass laws which will thoroughly protect the fish at seasons when they should not be disturbed.
Rivers run through different States, or are the boundaries between them, and the laws made for part or for one shore might not be identical with those made for other places. Unity of action is essential, for it is useless to protect in one locality if wanton destruction is permitted in another.
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