THE PROTECTION OF POND EMBANKMENTS AGAINST 

 WAVE ACTION. 



By H. L. Canfield, 

 Supt. of Fish Culture, U. S. Biological Station, Fairport, Iowa. 



Much difficulty has been experienced in maintaining pond 

 embankments against wave action and many crude as well as 

 pretentious devices have been resorted to in an attempt to satis- 

 factorily cope with this problem. 



Of the methods available, rip-rapping is known to be effective 

 and is used in certain cases, but the expense involved is prohibitive 

 for general use and this construction provides a harbor for cray- 

 fishes and various other fish enemies and is not favorable to the 

 production of food for fishes, therefore, it is regarded as generally 

 unfavorable by fish culturists. Willows will hold the embank- 

 ments, as will some of the rushes, but these cannot be controlled, 

 and are not considered satisfactory for general use about ponds, 

 although they are of benefit as a protection against wave action 

 under certain restricted conditions. 



The demand for a satisfactory method of combatting destruc- 

 tive wave action, especially in connection with fish cultural opera- 

 tions, has been indeed pressing. 



It is unnecessary to quote figures on the upkeep of pond 

 embankments to emphasize the importance of the subject, but as 

 an example of the extent to which persons have expended money 

 and labor in an attempt to meet this problem, the experience 

 of Mr. W. T. Marr, of Ainsworth, Iowa, will be given. Mr. Marr 

 has a farm fish pond of about 1 acre in area and the wave action 

 on the embankment at the outlet of the pond (which is about one- 

 fifth of the circumference) gave so much trouble and required 

 so much labor in repairing, that he decided to build a cement 

 abutment to meet the situation, which he did at a cost of $100.00. 

 This was about five years ago. When winter came on, however, 

 the ice cracked the abutment in several places and it settled into 

 the pond, so two years ago Mr. Marr placed a heavy fence of two- 

 inch planks just over the cement abutment which, he estimated, 

 cost him an additional $100.00, making in all $200.00 expended in 



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