202
C. F. HICKLINQ
cultural land of the same acreage, the capital value of the land as
industrial or residential sites would be far higher.
According to Fontaine (1968), the brackish-water ponds at Arcachon, in use for some 200 years, are now in disuse, and Pillay (1954)
and Saha et al. (1969a) were not hopeful as to the future of the Indian
bheris. Although a better view was taken by Pakrasi et al. (1964), who
also gave some impressive data on their productivity, they agreed
with Pillay that the restoration of the feeder channels and the
excavation of the silted ponds to their original depth needed a lot of
capital.
I n Java, according to a graph in Schuster’s book (1952)) the acreage
of fishponds increased until 1949, but he says that the future progress
of the industry is greatly dependent on technical improvements. Largescale excavation, he says, and digging out of the canals and strengthening of the embankments would much increase the productivity and
value of the ponds. Since 1920, the large-scale construction of ponds
has ceased, and what has been done is a rounding-off of the existing pond-complexes, rather than an extension of their area. The
costs of pond-construction have always been high and it is unlikely
that, under present conditions, work will be undertaken by the pond
proprietors themselves, since labour costs in 1952, when Schuster
wrote, made even the upkeep of ditches and embankments a heavy
burden on the proprietors.
Tang (1967) gives the total area of ponds in Indonesia as 160 000
hectares, or about twice that given by Schuster in 1952, but probably
Tang includes large acreages of less complete ponds on Celebes and other
Indonesian islands.
Lin (1968) gives a table showing the expansion of the area of
brackish-water fishponds in Taiwan. From 8 700 hectares in 1947,
the area increased to 13 100 in 1951. Since then, however, there has
been only a slow and irregular increase, with no net change in area
from 1962 to 1966, the last year given in the table, and this in spite of
a well-maintained level of productivity.
However, in the Philippines the industry continues to expand.
From an area of some 60 000 hectares before the last war (Frey, 1947)
the acreage grew to 100 097 in 1954, 119 582 in 1959 (Rabanal, 1961)
and 131 850 in 1964. The average annual increase in acreage has been
3 000 hectares. Fertile foreshore and deltaic areas have attracted the
interest of fishpond operators. However, the reclamation of land for
fishpond purposes is not only confined to foreshore areas, but also to
low swampy ground along the fringe of the rice fields. It has been
found that fishponds are more profitable than rice fields in marginally
C. F. HICKLINQ
cultural land of the same acreage, the capital value of the land as
industrial or residential sites would be far higher.
According to Fontaine (1968), the brackish-water ponds at Arcachon, in use for some 200 years, are now in disuse, and Pillay (1954)
and Saha et al. (1969a) were not hopeful as to the future of the Indian
bheris. Although a better view was taken by Pakrasi et al. (1964), who
also gave some impressive data on their productivity, they agreed
with Pillay that the restoration of the feeder channels and the
excavation of the silted ponds to their original depth needed a lot of
capital.
I n Java, according to a graph in Schuster’s book (1952)) the acreage
of fishponds increased until 1949, but he says that the future progress
of the industry is greatly dependent on technical improvements. Largescale excavation, he says, and digging out of the canals and strengthening of the embankments would much increase the productivity and
value of the ponds. Since 1920, the large-scale construction of ponds
has ceased, and what has been done is a rounding-off of the existing pond-complexes, rather than an extension of their area. The
costs of pond-construction have always been high and it is unlikely
that, under present conditions, work will be undertaken by the pond
proprietors themselves, since labour costs in 1952, when Schuster
wrote, made even the upkeep of ditches and embankments a heavy
burden on the proprietors.
Tang (1967) gives the total area of ponds in Indonesia as 160 000
hectares, or about twice that given by Schuster in 1952, but probably
Tang includes large acreages of less complete ponds on Celebes and other
Indonesian islands.
Lin (1968) gives a table showing the expansion of the area of
brackish-water fishponds in Taiwan. From 8 700 hectares in 1947,
the area increased to 13 100 in 1951. Since then, however, there has
been only a slow and irregular increase, with no net change in area
from 1962 to 1966, the last year given in the table, and this in spite of
a well-maintained level of productivity.
However, in the Philippines the industry continues to expand.
From an area of some 60 000 hectares before the last war (Frey, 1947)
the acreage grew to 100 097 in 1954, 119 582 in 1959 (Rabanal, 1961)
and 131 850 in 1964. The average annual increase in acreage has been
3 000 hectares. Fertile foreshore and deltaic areas have attracted the
interest of fishpond operators. However, the reclamation of land for
fishpond purposes is not only confined to foreshore areas, but also to
low swampy ground along the fringe of the rice fields. It has been
found that fishponds are more profitable than rice fields in marginally