Fish Culture.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1660, 14 January 1885, Page 2

Fish Culture.

One much felt want in inland towns like those in the Wairarapa Yalley, is that of a regular supply of fresh fish. Of course fish can be obtained from Wellington by railway, but the supply even in that market is irregular and scarce. In some parts of Europe fish culture is carried on in inland dis tricts. Mr W. Oldham Chambers, the secretary of the National Pish Cnl ture Association, contributes in a letter to the London Times, the suggestion that a portion of the land which is unavailable for agricultural purposes in England should be converted into fishponds, and devoted systematically to pisiculture. He describca two species of German carp, which would, he thinks, yield a profitable return to any who would embark in the new enterprise ; and lie calculates that an acre of water would produce, in one year, as many as 5000 fish, and that these would weigh from three to four pounds each by the end of the third summer. After the construction of the ponds was completed, in itself not an expensive proceeding, the cost of maintenance would be nominal; and, in a word, if the statements and arguments in his letter may be taken as correct, there is a means of definitely increasing home grown supplies of food, and of converting extensive waste areas to highly profitable uses. We wonder if something could not be done in the Wairarapa district in the way of breeding fish iu fish ponds.