134 WEEDS 



afford shelter or create a natural food-supply for their 

 fish would do well to remember this fact. Among 

 the establishments which are known to myself as 

 supplying a good class of weeds are the Itchen River 

 Trout-Breeding Establishment, the Norton Fisheries, 

 Baldock, Herts, and the Hyde End and Kennet 

 Valley Fisheries. 



The Riparian owner must also take into considera- 

 tion the valuable effect which the water plants have 

 in checking the down-stream flow of the water in 

 the dry seasons, and by this natural damming action 

 keeping a plentiful supply of water in streams which 

 would otherwise soon run very low (see Plates XXI. 

 and XXII.). These two photos were taken on the Axe, 

 near Seaton Junction, and the influence of the weeds 

 on this stream can be at once realized, both as regards 

 the plentiful supply of insect life and also as damming 

 up and filtering the water of the river. 



Weed-cutting and dredging should always, there- 

 fore, be restricted within reasonable limits. 



The only water on the Colne, near Uxbridge, with 

 which I am acquainted was, at one time, thoroughly 

 ruined by the unthinking action of the Thames Con- 

 servancy, who, at the most inopportune time of the 

 year, absolutely ploughed the river-bed entirely clear 

 of weeds, leaving it shelterless, foodless, and fishless, 

 save for a few stray fish which were lucky enough to 

 escape death, mutilation, or banishment, but which 

 soon fell victims to the nets of the local poachers. 



This wholesale weed destruction does not, however, 



