48 Mr. J. J. Armislead [Feb. 14, 



all, naturally, and the trout in whicli were so insignificant in size as 

 hardly to be worth noticing — from a fisherman's point of view I am 

 speaking now — was made to produce tons of fish. One pond alone 

 produced several times over, upwards of fifteen hundredweight of fish. 

 The pond was only ninety feet long by thirty feet wide. Of course 

 the fish hsid to be largely fed on artificial food, but by using the 

 artificial food twice a day the ponds produced a large quantity. 

 This shows what water may be made to do ; and when we hear 

 about the over-crowding of fish in our rivers and lakes, it strikes a 

 fish-culturist sometimes as being the height of absurdity. We find, 

 however, in our streams that there is often little or no water, and 

 that the fish are run back into the pools and have to wait there a 

 considerable time until a flood comes, or until a shower comes which 

 causes the stream to rise, and during this time they get very little 

 food. The food supply in the streams, owing to the lowness of the 

 water, is almost destroyed, and the animals which inhabit the streams, 

 like the fish, suffer very much from the lowness of the water, which 

 is caused very largely by the surface or hill drainage which has been 

 carried on for thirty or forty years in this country. 



Now, all this can be counteracted, I believe, very easily. Na 

 doubt we have a great deal to learn about it yet, but we are on the 

 right tack, and I think that after a while we shall be able to remedy 

 this state of things to a large extent. We find that from this state of 

 lowness of water we suddenly drift into a state of heavy flood. The 

 rains come down, and the water comes down from the hills in heavy 

 floods — -far heavier than came down before the hills were drained. 

 These floods carry everything before them, sometimes washing away 

 bridges, and doing more or less damage to property. Now this 

 water must be put under control, and when we get it under control 

 we find that it is, indeed, a most controllable thing. We find that 

 we can do with it what we did not anticipate but a few years ago. 

 At those times of the year V7hen the water supply is naturally 

 deficient, it must be gently increased, and I need hardly point out, 

 that by caring for it even to this extent, one of the natural conse- 

 quences will be an increase in the quantity of that class of food 

 which is produced in the stream itself, or in its immediate sur- 

 roundings or accessories. The fish, too, will at once have a better 

 range, and so will feed more freely than they do when confined in a 

 pool where starvation has become a necessity on the one hand, and 

 escape a practical impossibility on the other. In addition to having 

 become possessed of more roomy quarters, the whole tone of their 

 surroundings has become better. The water in which they live, 

 and on which their very existence depends, has become fresher and 

 contains more oxygen. The fish feel and enjoy a freedom which 

 before they were unacquainted with ; and, in addition to this, if a 

 sufficiency of proper food be forthcoming, they will at once begin to 

 put on flesh and grow in a surprising manner. 



The water supply can very easily be managed by impounding, and 

 by making reservoirs on the streams so that compensation water can 



