9() NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOGIELY 
Several ponds and lakes situated on the country estates of New 
York gentlemen who wished advice on stocking and caring for 
ponds, were visited by special invitation. These were both natural 
and artificial, large and small, deep and shallow, spring fed, and 
supplied by streams, with fish and without. Some of the ponds 
which contained fishes had never yielded much either in the way 
of sport or food. Most pond owners confessed entire ignorance 
of the subject and the writer’s search for literature on pond 
culture, to fit the varying conditions met with, did not reveal as 
much as could be desired, especially that based on American con- 
ditions. 
The professional fish-culturists of this country apparently owe 
the private citizen something more in the way of advice in home 
fish raising than he has yet received. 
It would seem that notwithstanding the abundant literature 
relative to public fish-culture, which has been distributed freely in 
this country, there has been left almost unconsidered, a field of 
pond culture simpler and cheaper than that connected with our 
admirable system of stocking public waters, and with possibilities 
greater than have been realized. Wholesale methods in fish- 
culture, requiring artificial fertilization of eggs, hatchery build- 
ings, and series of rearing ponds, are seldom applicable to the 
farm and the private estate. 
The writer devoted considerable time to the study of small, 
natural and artificial lakes in the region about New York, with 
a view to ascertaining their possibilities for producing the com- 
moner kinds of fishes with a moderate amount of expense and 
care. It is hoped that the present paper, relating merely to the 
actual requirements for success in home fish raising, will be of 
interest not only to members of the New York Zoological Society, 
but to the out-of-town public in general. It is presented as a 
primer on the subject, not as a general treatise, a brief list of 
works of the latter class being appended. Its publication will 
at least serve the original purpose of the writer—that of facilita- 
ting the handling of a portion of the correspondence of the 
Aquarium. As a good many years have passed since he served an 
apprenticeship at a government fish-hatchery, recent publications 
on fish culture have been used freely. Acknowledgments are 
hereby made to the authors of the works mentioned in this paper. 
The photographs of fishes published herewith, were made by 
Messrs. Elwin R. Sanborn and L. B. Spencer, from specimens 
living in the New York Aquarium. 
Pond Culture in General.—It should be made clear that the in- 
