THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. 14 April, 1918 No. 4 



A Fish Pond for the Farm Boy 



James G. Xeedham 



Here is a home enterprise that I can commend to any one who 

 has a place for it, and that I especially commend to the farm boy. 

 It is a home fish-pond, to be made, like the home garden, a perman- 

 ent part of the farm equipment — a place to raise things, a source 

 of choice products for the table, and a place for pleasant recreation. 

 Especially at the present time do I commend the home fish-pond ; 

 for the boy who will establish and carefully manage one may 

 accomplish all these good ends: 



i . He may add to the food supply. Probably there is no equal 

 area of the farm that will yield so much good food as will the por- 

 tion included in a good fish-pond, or that, when once established, 

 will yield it with so little labor. 



2. He may make money; for the products of the fish-pond, 

 fresh from the water, are more than ordinarily salable. 



3 . He may add to the beauty and to the market value of his 

 home place; for there is nothing in nature more beautiful than a 

 clean pond with attractive shore lines, its mirroring surface 

 reflecting tree and cloud and sky. Then, too, a pond may best be 

 put where it will eliminate a swale or boggy place that has been 

 both an eyesore and a breeding place for mosquitoes. 



4. He may find new means of recreation; for a fish-pond, 

 besides being a good place in which to fish, may be made a good 

 place in which to swim in summer, or on which to skate in winter. 



5 . He may become a leader and a pioneer in a new enterprise, 

 that is now in its infancy, and that is destined to be widespread in 

 the future. 



Not everybody can have a fish-pond, because more water is 

 necessary than some farms have to spare; but many farms have 

 permanent streams with good water running away all the time. 



133 



