9 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



think worth while. He can make one or more ponds in which much 

 of the surface water is caught and stored for the subsequent use of his 

 animals, and he can stock this pond with fish for domestic use, or for 

 the market. 



On the one hand, what a considerable addition to the food supply 

 of the country would be found in such productive ponds. We are told 

 of the fabulous wealth represented by the American hen, 4 and so it may 

 yet be with the American catfish, the buffalo-fish, the sunfishes, or the 

 bass. There is much to indicate that one can raise fish with less trouble 

 and with as much profit as one rears poultry. 



On the other hand, if one third of the 6,000,000 American farms 

 had one or more fish ponds, what an enormous amount of water might 

 be temporarily stored in these. It would seem that a positive step 

 of some value would have been taken to prevent the destructive floods, 

 to make more uniform the flow of streams, and thus to better naviga- 

 tion and to keep the soil waste upon the farm. " A fish pond for every 

 farm" might yet become the watch-word for every advocate of im- 

 proved navigation, flood prevention and soil conservation. 



Some Practical Steps 



It should not be presumed that a fad is proposed or that a simple 

 nostrum is advocated for the immediate accomplishment of nation- 

 wide benefits. Avenues of progress may be opened without calling for 

 a headlong plunge into them. The incline is upward and probably 

 beset with a common number of obstacles and pitfalls. On the one 

 hand, if fish conservation in public waters can be promoted by broader 

 and more positive efforts than are now generally made, it is necessary 

 that thought and investigation should be applied to distinguish with 

 certainty the ways that are right from the ways that are wrong. On 

 the other hand, if increase of fish through private enterprise is prac- 

 ticable and appropriate, the movement will be but faintly advanced 

 by the mere waving of a banner or a summons to the line. The im- 

 prudent are easily induced, but in the field of industry, the better re- 

 cruits are the wise who look for plans and specifications and consider 

 costs and possible returns. 



There are many persons now seriously interested in fish rearing 

 and who want to start a fish pond, or, having one, to make it more 

 productive. They ask for information as to the fish and the conditions ; 

 but, at the best, the practical data that government or states can give 



4 American poultry products alone are worth half a billion dollars a year: 

 report of Secretary of Agriculture, D. F. Houston, as quoted in the Review of 

 Reviews, March, 1915, p. 266. This figure is more than double that of the potato 

 crop, and approaches the estimate of value of the wheat crop. With the product 

 of 500 millions from domestic poultry, compare the few millions (about twelve) 

 credited to fresh-water fisheries, and based almost entirely upon wild fish. 



