226 BOARD OF AGRICULTLRE. 



after I catch them. It was Sam Weller, was it not, who said that " weal pie is 

 werry good if you know the young 'oman as makes it." So I say that fish consti- 

 tute a most excellent article of food if you know where they were caught and wh<? 

 killed them. There is a marked difference between a " boughten " fish and a fish 

 one takes himself. To get all the virtues of a fish it must be eattn the day it is 

 taken. 



The preferences of most people difter in regard to fish. To me the goggle-eye, 

 or red-eye, is the best that swims. Take a goggle-eye about the size of your hand, 

 if your hand is not too large, fry it in plenty of lard, steam slightly after being 

 done to a turn, unless you like your fish crisped to a chip, which I do not, and if 

 there is any better provender for a healthy man I have yet to find it out. Talk of 

 your trout and your shad — don't mention them beside properly cooked goggle-eyes. 



" Ye monsters of the bubbling deep 



Your Maker's name upraise — 

 Up from the sands, ye codd lings peep. 

 And sing the red-eye's praise." 



But, if my memory serves me, I was not invited here to direct how to cook fish, 

 nor yet to express my poor opinion as to the best of the catch. I was called to dis- 

 cuss the " Fish Interests of Indiana." It would take a longer time than you would 

 wish to listen to do justice to this subject, and, as our honorable congressmen do, 

 I shall have to ask leave to print if I find that I am becoming too prolix. 



I hold to the grand truth that Indiana has in its rivers and streams as fine fish 

 as can be found anywhere under tlie sun, from the much bepraised black bass, whose 

 fighting powers are immense, to my favorite red-eye, whose courage oozes out of its 

 tail, as Mark Tapley's is said to have done at his finger ends. Judging from the 

 following, the Illinois fish hatcheries have not been well attended to by the Fish 

 Commissioner of that State : 



"It is announced that 1,000,000 eggs of Loch Lerin trout have been received at 

 New York, and will be forwarded immediately to the hatchery at Northville, Mich. 

 It occurs to us that if our Fish C'ommi?,siouer Barllett were alive to the interest of 

 this great and growing State he would secure a fair share of these spawn for his 

 Illinois hatcheries. Mr. Bartlelt appears to have been singularly remiss in his 

 official duties of late. We are told that the hatcheries on the Hennepin canal, South 

 Fork, Bear Creek, and other noble waters of this State are in a sadly demoralized 

 condition, and an invoice of the stores of the fish commission shows that depart- 

 ment of our public service in possession of only one drag-net, an eel-speer, and a 

 can of cove oysters. It might be well for the Legislature to investigate this branch 

 of the State government." 



I am glad to know that the citizens of Indiana to a considerable number are 

 turning their attention to the breeding of fish, and that throughout the State there 

 are hundreds of ponds for the cultivation thereof. But, the truth is, it is not every 

 one who can own a pond and enjoy the luxury of fishing on his own domain. 

 Therefore, too great attention to pond fishing is, to my judgment, somewhat of the 



same nature as — 



" The fond credulity 

 Of silly fish, which (worldling like) still look 

 Upon the bait— but never on the hook." 



