Part III.] 



Pond Fish Culture. 



137 



vegetable-eating fish. If both kinds are in the pond, then the 

 relations one to the other should be studied and watched in 

 order to get the best results. 



Experience has taught us that a pond with no water plants 

 growing in it is a rather poor place for fish. There is but little 

 food and almost no protection in such a pond for the fish. At 

 the State Hatchery the ponds that are well supplied with water 

 plants are by far the best for producing fish. When many fish 

 are hatched in ponds where there are few or no plants, one of 

 two things usually happens — the fish either eat each other up, 

 or, owing to their impoverished condition, they become stunted 

 and are liable to become diseased and die. 



Removing Aquatic Vegetation. 



However, ponds sometimes get so full of aquatic vegetation 

 that they become almost unmanageable. It may become neces- 

 sary at times to clean out part of the water plants. This can 

 be done by various methods. On a small scale it is usually 

 accomplished by the use of rakes and pitchforks. The vegeta- 

 tion thus removed can be piled up in the shallow water of the 

 pond and afterwards removed to the banks. We have an old 

 scow or flat-bottomed boat, twelve feet long, six feet wide 

 and one foot deep, that is frequently put to use when the so- 



This picture shows the bottom of one of the old ponds at the Fash Hatchery. The 

 ■water plants, mostly Chara "moss," gathered into piles with six-tined pitchforks, 

 resemble small hay cocks. 



called "moss" is being removed from ponds. When loaded it 

 can be pushed near the shore by the use of poles and unloaded. 

 Aquatic plants, in bulk, are mostly water. When dried there 

 is not much to them. They seem to do no harm when piled up 

 in the ponds and left there, even though the water is turned on 

 and the pond filled up before they get dry. If the weather is 



