88 How to obtain it. 



Swans have been tried on some waters, and where they can reach 

 it they make havoc amongst it. There are places in which it has 

 appeared suddenly without any apparent reason. In such cases 

 it has probably been carried by birds. 



The Anacharis was originally introduced into this country 

 from America, and is usually looked upon as the most free 

 growing plant we have in our waters. There are some native 

 plants that are as bad, if not worse, and one of these is the water 

 milfoil (Myriophyllum), which scatters its seeds profusely, and 

 springs up, sometimes all over the bottom of a pond, and in a 

 very short time spoils the fishing indeed, I have seen it so 

 densely matted together that it was with difficulty that a boat 

 could be pulled through it. In such a case the simplest plan of 

 dealing with it is to cut it down and drag it out, and where it 

 becomes an excessive annoyance the best thing that can be done 

 is to run the pond dry, and when the bottom is sufficiently free 

 from water, to cultivate it roughly, and take a crop of grass off it 

 for a season or two. The advantage of this course is very great, 

 as the grass is not absolutely killed at once by the water when 

 the pond is refilled, but continues to grow for some time. The 

 conditions existing are very favourable for the production of a 

 great mass of animal life, consisting of minute organisms, which 

 are multiplied enormously for awhile, and the fish thrive on them. 



In one way or another this experiment has now been often 

 involuntarily repeated, and the result proved beyond a doubt, by 

 the improvement of the fish themselves. Water plants are a great 

 help in the growing of young fish, and in a pond well stocked 

 with proper vegetation, trout fry will thrive where fish from the 

 same batch of ova, kept in a bare pond and fed artificially, will 

 sicken and die in large numbers. This fact alone may be taken 

 as a fair test of the value of proper aquatic vegetation. As to the 

 best plants to make use of, opinions may differ as yet, but one 

 important point to be observed is the avoidance of those the 

 introduction of which is likely to prove an annoyance rather than 



(otherwise. About the margins of a stream, and at the point 

 where it enters a pond or lake, experience has taught us the 

 cultivation of the common water-cress (Nasturtium offidnale) is 

 highly beneficial. There are many terrestrial plants also, which 



