Various

“ The ingenious Chinese people had discovered the philosophy which underlies fish-culture, as well as the best modes of increasing their supplies of fish, long before any European nation had dreamt of taking action in the matter. A few years ago, a party of fisher-folks from the Celestial Empire, on a visit to Europe, were exceedingly astonished at the prices they had to pay for the fish they were so fond of eating. They explained that in China any person might purchase for a very small sum as much as might serve a family for a week’s food. ”

“ Of late years, no feature of fishery economy has excited more attention than the progress we have been making in what is called ‘Pisciculture.’ Fish-eggs are now a common article of commerce—the sales of which, and the prices at which they can be purchased, being as regularly advertised as any other kind of goods. ”

“ The only people you will be able to help are those who are willing to help themselves in the right way—which means those who have learned that the success of a comrade is no barrier to their own success. ”

“ But coming from lecture, even the old hand, the third-year man, now, as of yore, involuntarily betrays a lingering trace of schoolboy days by a very natural, but most undignified, hop, skip, and jump up-stairs, to doff cap and gown and don flannels for the river. ”

“ Some writers and lecturers on the natural and economic history of our food-fishes have asserted that no possible demand can lead to their extermination or to any permanent falling-off in the supplies; but the economy of the American fisheries tends to disprove that theory. In the seas which surround the United States, certain fishes would soon become very scarce, were the supplies not augmented each season by the aid of the pisciculturists. The fruitfulness of the cod is really wonderful, individuals of that family having been taken with from five to nine millions of eggs in their ovaries. ”

“ The chief salmon-fisheries of Scotland being held as private property, are, of course, more favourably situated, in regard to fish-culture, than salmon-fisheries which are open to the public, and which, in a sense, are the property of no person in particular. ”

“ I should be sorry to rob you of any part of the joy which faith in his fellow-men gives to youth. I think the man is happier who fails because he has trusted others, than he who succeeds because he has trusted no one but himself. ”

“ A very small trout will be found to contain one thousand eggs; a female salmon will yield on the average eight hundred ova for each pound of her weight; and if even a fifth part of the eggs of our food-fishes were destined to arrive at maturity, there would be no necessity for resorting to pisciculture in order to augment our fish commissariat. But even in America, where most kinds of fish were at one period almost over-abundant, artificial breeding is now necessary in order to keep up the supplies. ”

“ It is astonishing what benefits can be procured by the saving of only a penny a week. For instance, a youth of sixteen, by putting a penny postage-stamp each week on one of the slips referred to, might either secure for himself at sixty, old-age pay of about three pounds a year, or insure his life for about thirteen pounds; and if the saving commenced at five years of age, the old-age pay would be about five pounds a year. ”

“ The abnormally mild winter—if winter it can be called—which has been experienced this year, has once more raised hopes in the minds of farmers that brighter times are in store for them. The extreme mildness of the season has not only been favourable for all field operations, but it has been most beneficial for stock. Lambs have never been so numerous as they are this year in many of the southern counties, for not only have they had the climate in their favour during the most critical time of their lives, but there has been a wonderful number of twins. ”

“ In the United States, the art of pisciculture has been studied with rare patience and industry, the fish-breeders thinking it no out-of-the-way feat to transplant three or four millions of young salmon in the course of a season. In dealing with the shad, the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries have been able to distribute the young of that fish by tens of millions per annum; the loss in the hatching of eggs and in the transmission of the animal being very small. ”

“ From Howietoun, and from some other places as well, gentlemen can stock their ponds or other ornamental water with fecundated ova in a certain state of forwardness; or they can procure, for a definite sum of money, fish of all ages from tiny fry to active yearlings, or well grown two-year olds! Sporting-waters which have been overfished can be easily replenished by procuring a few thousand eggs or yearlings; while angling clubs which rent a loch or important stream can, at a very small cost, keep up the supplies, whether of trout or salmon. ”

“ The salmon, however, being an animal of great commercial value, is so coveted at all seasons of the year, both by persons who have a legal right to such property, and by persons who have no right, that such fisheries have a tendency to become barren of breeding-stock; for although each female yields on the average as many as twenty thousand eggs, extremely few of these ever reach maturity; hence, it has come about that many proprietors are resorting to the piscicultural process of increasing their supplies. ”

“ Wrentham had tried to persuade him to take chambers in the West End, indicating Piccadilly as the most suitable quarter for the residence of a young man of fortune who was likely to mix in society. There he would be close to the clubs, and five minutes from every place of amusement worth going to.
But Philip had notions of his own on this subject. He had no particular desire to be near the clubs: he expected his time to be fully occupied in the enterprise on which he was entering. What leisure he might have would of course be spent at Willowmere and Ringsford. ”

“ In China, the yolks of hens’ eggs are thrown into the rivers and ponds, that kind of food being greedily devoured by the young fish.
It has long been known to those interested in the economy of our fisheries, that only a very small percentage of the ova of our chief food-fishes comes to maturity, while of the fish actually hatched, a very small percentage reaches our tables for food-uses; hence the desire which has arisen to augment the supplies by means of pisciculture. ”

“ Attendance at a particular post-office is necessary for the payment of a premium, a special book has to be kept, and other rules have to be observed. All this will be changed under the new system; and when once the annuity has been purchased or the assurance effected, no further action on the part of the person concerned will be necessary. The premiums will be transferred at the chief office in London from his savings-bank account to his assurance or annuity account without trouble to him. ”

“ A quarter of a century since, the salmon-fishery owners of the river Tay in Scotland, impressed with the possibilities of pisciculture, had a suite of salmon-nurseries constructed at Stormontfield, where they have annually hatched a very large number of eggs, and where they feed and protect the young fish till they are ready to migrate to the sea, able to fight their own battle of life. ”

“ Because one man has had such a pleasant experience of African climate, it is no reason why every one else should expect the same exemption from illness. Still, we trust that Mr Johnston’s deductions may prove correct.
We are all of us now and then astonished by the report of some sale in which a fancy price, as it is called, has been paid for something of no intrinsic value, and very often of no artistic value either. Hundreds of pounds have been paid within recent years for a single teacup, provided that the happy purchaser can be sure that it is unique. ”

“ But if the ‘man’ who occupies my Old Rooms is brought as safely to his journey’s end as I have now well nigh been brought to mine, my last half-minute alone in that ancient ‘upper chamber’ was not spent there in vain. ”

“ In the course of the last three summers, several Scottish lakes have had their fish-stores replenished by means of drafts on the piscicultural bank, which is always open at the Howietoun ‘fishery.’ The distance to which ova or tender young fish require to be transported offers no obstacle to this new development of fish-commerce; thousands of infantile fish were brought from Russia to Edinburgh with perfect safety on the occasion of the Fishery Exhibition held in that city. ”

“ The best observers fortunately have defended the bird against the charge of being songless; and in respect to its alleged crime of eating salmon-roe, the evidence above given is surely conclusive in favour of its innocence.
The water-ousel is one of our most unique birds. It is a wader and a diver, and though not web-footed, by using its wings it can propel itself under water. Its habits are always a delightful study to the observer. The domed nest, with its snow-white eggs, is a wonderful structure ”

“ The advantage in this scheme which the classes for whom it is designed will probably best appreciate is the liberty, and consequent convenience, of paying the premiums not in one annual lump sum and on a specific date, but from time to time as may be agreeable to the insurant or annuitant, and in such sums as may at the time suit his pocket. He may indeed save a penny at a time for his annual premiums by using the savings-bank stamp slip, which has spaces on it for twelve stamps, and which when filled up may be passed into the post-office. ”

“ The old lady is in the enjoyment of good health, but complains of her deafness (and no wonder) . Her hair is still long and plentiful, considering her age. She spent her youth in great poverty, but is now pretty well off. She has outlived three husbands; and has had a family of nineteen children, all of whom have been married, and are now dead, the last one to die being a daughter of ninety-three. She lives with one of her great-grandchildren, a man of fifty. ”

“ You will have to learn that the petty jealousies which exist amongst the workers in even the smallest undertakings are as countless as they are incomprehensible to the man who looks on all around him with generous eyes. ”

“ When rivers are largely frozen over, it is interesting to see how boldly the little bird dives from the edge of an ice-sheet into a stream two feet or more in depth, how long it can remain under water, and how often it rises to breathe and dive again without leaving the stream. ”

“ We have only to remember that twenty females of the cod family will yield at least one hundred millions of eggs, to see that the possibilities of pisciculture might extend far beyond anything indicated in the foregoing remarks.
In resuscitating their exhausted oyster-beds, the French people have during the last twenty years worked wonders; they have been able to reproduce that favourite shell-fish year after year in quantities that would appear fabulous if they could be enumerated in figures. ”

“ Farmers, besides being subject to the risks incurred by all engaged in commercial enterprises, are in addition peculiarly dependent on the very variable weather of our climate. In 1877, Professor Tanner was deputed by the Science and Art Department to make an inquiry into the conditions regulating the growth of barley, wheat, and oats. He found that on a certain farm the portion of the barley-crop which was harvested in fine harvest-weather yielded per acre forty bushels, each of which weighed fifty-six pounds ”

“ There can be no doubt that the first steps taken by the young to make provision for the future act as a powerful incentive to greater efforts, and that thus an annuity or life policy of considerable amount is gradually built up. Mr Fawcett and the select Committee over which he presided, recognising this fact, felt that such beginnings of thrift could not be made too soon, and consequently recommended that the present limits of age which restrict life-assurance to sixteen, and the grant of annuities to ten, should be respectively reduced to eight and five years ”

“ In the inland districts of China there are also to be found numerous fishponds, where supplies of the more popular sorts of fish are kept, and fed for the market. These are grown from ova generally bought from dealers, who procure supplies of eggs from some of the large rivers of the country. The infant fish, it may be mentioned, are as carefully tended and fed as if they were a flock of turkeys in the yard of a Norfolk farmer. In the opinion of the Chinese fishermen, who were interviewed by the industrious Frank Buckland, hundreds of thousands of fish annually die of starvation ”

“ No plan of inclosed sea-ponds, however large they might be, will meet the case; the fish-eggs will require to be hatched in floating cylinders specially constructed for the purpose, so as to admit of the eggs being always under the influence of the sea-water, and at the same time exposed to the eye of skilled watchers. It is believed by persons well qualified to judge, that the eggs of our more valuable sea-fishes may in the way indicated be dealt with in almost incredible numbers. ”

“ Even thousands have been paid for a vase a few inches high simply because it was rare. The mania for collecting curiosities which prompts people to pay these large sums, is by no means confined to articles of virtu. Natural history claims a large army of such collectors. A single{268} orchid was sold only the other day for a small fortune. At the time of the Cochin-China fowl mania, which John Leech helped to caricature out of existence, a single rooster fetched five hundred pounds. ”

“ Men and capital are required for their development; and as the climate is a healthy one, and the laws administered by capable and impartial men, there is every incentive to Europeans to turn their attention to the country. ”

“ The ingenious individual who thus tapped the conduit or watercourse running along the street, seems to have paid more dearly for the privilege than even a London water-consumer has to pay to the Companies in the present day. ”

“ It is true, of course, that numerous benefit and friendly societies exist which offer various kinds of privileges; but from causes that are not far to seek, the poor have come to view such societies with a certain amount of distrust; and it is needful that the government should step in to render the poorer classes not only all the facilities at its command, but also that assurance as regards stability which alone a government department can impress on such classes. ”