

Ward. — An Experimental Fish Plant 177 



adding some chemical, or cleaning out some type of vege- 

 tation. In every way, it seems to furnish possibilities 

 of culture such as have not been given or utilized any- 

 where else, so far as I know. 



Now, this has a very definite and practical bearing, and, 

 I was much interested to see the way in which the Board 

 of Trustees of the University of Illinois treated the orig- 

 inal discussion when the idea of such a plant was pre- 

 sented to them. One of the distinguished members of the 

 Board is a gentleman whose repute as a fisherman and 

 angler is very high. He is said to be able to tell more 

 stories than any other man in the state of Illinois, on the 

 subject of catching fish. He immediately seized this 

 pond as one of the things that would interest the state, 

 and became still more interested when I told him that this 

 pond of water was just what any farmer could have in 

 his front yard, precisely the same as he plants a garden 

 there, and if we could work out principles which would 

 show the man on the farm who wants a little lake where 

 lakes do not exist — I am not talking about Wisconsin, Min- 

 nesota, Michigan or Northern New York; I am talking 

 about a place where natural bodies of water do not exist, 

 — if we could tell the farmer how to establish a little lake 

 in his front yard, that would keep itself fresh and sweet, 

 and that would produce for him some fish out of which he 

 could derive pleasure and obtain perhaps some profit, we 

 would be doing him a real service. The support which the 

 mere outline of the report received from the Board of 

 Trustees, and from a conference of the State Agricultural 

 Society, which was in session at the University, showed 

 that if the plan could be worked out, there was no ques- 

 tion about the support of the state for more extensive 

 experimentation. 



The objects of the plan, then, — as stated briefly, and 

 this lays before you the main points in the scheme, — are 

 (1) to establish a plant so simple that it can be dupli- 

 cated in every respect by any man, anywhere, (2) to work 

 out the proper environment for most efficient fish produc- 

 tion so that the individual anywhere may let the pond pro- 

 duce the fish itself, (3) to eliminate the work that a man 



