420 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATFS FISH COMMISSION. 



Out of 200 acres comprising my home (called Glenhouse), I have no 

 acre outside of my gardens and iruit land but what I would miss less 

 than my trout pond. With probably not more than 8200 outlay, con- 

 sisting of labor and money, I now have a fair supply for a large family 

 of fresh lish of excellent quality : gather my ice and wash my sheep at 

 probably less than one-third of what would be the cost without it; and 

 raise on three small islands in the pond more cranberries than we can 

 \\s^ besides the frogs it produces during their season. Then, in addi- 

 tion to great improvement in the landscape by the mingling of water in 

 it, to me it seems like money well expended, and I know of no branch of 

 farming industry that will bring better returns in proportion to the 

 care bestowed and money expended. I have shut iu a small pen a few 

 trout and fed to them all the angle- worms and small fish they would eat, 

 and their growth has been as rapid and remunerative in proportion to 

 the expense as any swine or poultry I have ever had fed. But I am 

 now, whilst writing this, learning a new lesson which I ought to have 

 anticipated, and probably would if I had been manipulating any other 

 kind of farm stock. With our experience with sheep, horn cattle or 

 horses we would not have expected a uniform supply or iucrease by 

 simply stocking up with a full quota of the proper gender of each kind 

 to start with, but we would have used art iu maintaining conditions in 

 regard to seasons, and made every o:her necessary special effort to see 

 that the means used were successful. My trout from some cause utterly 

 failed to produce auy young ones last fall and winter, and my pond will 

 have to be restocked by art, or I will have to take the doubtful chances 

 of a better crop this wilder. It may so occur with this kind of fish in 

 their natural waters; I am inclined to think it does, and hence a varia- 

 ble supply in our streams. My screen at the weir may have allowed 

 them all to pass out of the pond and should be finer. 1 have never prop- 

 agated lish by artificial means, but am now inclined to believe that, in 

 order to be uniformly successful with trout culture, artificial hatching 

 will have to be included. As to a self-sustaining fish pond being prac- 

 ticable and profitable to farmers and others I have no doubt. Carniv- 

 orous fish can be raised successfully with other and smaller ones that 

 live largely upon vegetable growths in the water. The latter are easily 

 supplied with vegetable food when they need it, and angle-worms can be 

 cheaply produced to feed the former when they need them, in addition 

 to the food already in the water or produced there. It pays well to feed 

 both kinds well. 



1 fancy you might wish to ask one question, and that is, how I can 

 feed different kinds of fish living in the same ponds on food suitable 

 for each and different in the kind. My answer would be that a goose 

 would not go to share a meal with a fox, or a chicken with a hawk. 

 When the fox and hawk were gone the others might pick up some of 

 the crumbs, and the food for the chicken and goose would not be 

 sought after by others. 



Dunnings, Pa., June 1G, 1881. 



