Part I.] Fish Ponds. 9 



thrown or washed into their waters. Many of them have old 

 logs, stumps, fallen trees, tree tops, brush and other similar 

 rubbish in them. Some of these natural ponds also have heavy- 

 growths of vegetation, including grasses, weeds and mosses. 

 Most of these natural ponds are more or less stocked with fish 

 of one or more varieties ; a pond of any size that has had water 

 in it for six months or a year usually contains fish of some kind, 

 more often catfish or sunfish. If the ponds are large, with 

 some depth of water, carp, buffalo, shad, channel cat and, some- 

 times, crappie and bass, are found in them, as well as various 

 kinds of minnows. Some of these natural ponds, where the 

 water supply is not too irregular, produce and support a good 

 many fish and are quite satisfactory. As a rule, however, they 

 are hard to manage, most of them being too low to be drained, 

 or if it is possible to drain them there is no water to refill 

 them. Muddy bottomed ponds that cannot be drained and 

 cleaned afford poor places for fish to spawn; and this is es- 

 pecially true of the larger game fishes. Natural ponds are 

 usually well stocked with turtles, gars, bullfrogs, snakes, all 

 of which are natural enemies of the fish. Owing to the va- 

 rious kinds of trash in such ponds it is usually very difficult 

 to seine them and remove the natural enemies of the fish, in- 

 cluding the larger fish themselves, which are not only enemies 

 of the young and the small fish, but are a detriment to their 

 growth and development. 



Many of these natural ponds can be cleaned by removing 

 the brush, logs and vegetable growths. This makes it possible 

 to manage them in much better shape and puts them in a con- 

 dition that seines can be used in removing the natural enemies 

 of the fish as well as the large fish themselves. However, 

 seining and netting in fish ponds may prove to be a dangerous 

 business unless the operators understand something about fish 

 culture.* Many of the natural ponds can be greatly improved 

 for fish purposes by cleaning and developing them in certain 

 places and by throwing up embankments to keep out flood 

 waters. Sometimes these natural ponds can be fed by direct- 

 ing a small stream of fresh water into them through ditches 

 or pipes from creeks or springs or even from windmill pumps. 

 If this can be done their value as fish-producing bodies of 

 water will be greatly increased. 



These natural ponds are usually well supplied with fish food, 

 especially the kinds of insects and plants that young fish and 

 minnows feed upon; and young fish and minnows serve very 

 extensively as food for the growing game fishes. 



* See what is said about it under the heading of "Seining" in part III, 

 or "Pond Fish Culture," in this bulletin. 



