Tlie Friends and Foes of the Fanner 



-55 



may be easily found in the dust. Sometimes 

 the damage done is very considerable. One 

 observer, Mr Kirby, a Suffolk man, by the 

 way, calculated that the loss through the 

 midge in one field he examined was not less 

 than ly^ bushels per acre. Others have put 

 the destruction much higher. Probably the 

 best method the farmer could use where the 

 midge is common, would be to burn the dust 



after thrashing. Fortunately, both in the 

 case of the midge and of many other of our 

 insect scourges, there is a check provided far 

 more effective than any we can use. There 

 are small flies called ichneumon flies who 

 deposit their eggs in the maggots of the 

 midge, and thus destroy them, and this is 

 one of the most effectual ways of limiting 

 their increase. 



AMERICAN BLACK BASS. 



MR FRANCIS FRANCIS writes as 

 follows to the Times : — I have just 

 received intelligence from Mr Barnaby, of 

 the Troutdale pisciculture establishment at 

 Keswick, of his return from America with a 

 stock of black bass fr) , which his partner, Mr 

 Armistead, writes to say are safely deposited 

 in their tanks, and are now feeding heartily, 

 so that if no accident happens, they may 

 happily be reared. Unfortunately, owing to 

 the unfavourable weather and the difficulty of 

 obtaining the fry in America, and also to the 

 loss of a good many even after they reached 

 Liverpool, the stock is but a small one, only 

 sixty being left alive ; but these, if they do 

 well, and take to the water they are placed 

 in, may breed and become the parents of a 

 large stock ; and in order that his trouble and 

 expense may not be thrown away, Mr Barna- 

 by is contemplating another journey imme- 

 diately to add to the stock. 



There are two species of fish called black 

 bass in America : the lake fish of the north 

 (Cr}'stes nigricans), the object of Mr Barna- 

 by's journey, and the bass of the south and 

 west (Crystes salmoides). Anglers will be 

 glad to hear that the new fish, which some- 

 what resembles the perch in form, is an ex- 

 cellent sporting fish, and takes both fly and 

 spinning bait readily, and gourmands will be 

 pleased to learn that it is an admirable fish 

 for the table. The introduction of a new fish 

 — and so good and useful a one — I think 

 deserves to be chronicled as the second great- 

 est feat in pisciculture ever accomplished — 

 the introduction of salmon into Australia by 

 Mr Youl being the first — and it is a satisfac- 

 tion to know that, though the art receives no 

 encouragement whatever from our Govern- 

 ment (as it does in other countries), yet 

 both these feats have been undertaken by 

 Englishmen. 



