ris 



FIS 



way is that adopted by Mr. Seely and 

 Dr. Akerly on ytaten Island, o(" strew- 

 ing them in hiyers on compost beds 

 with peat, ashes, slacked lime, char- 

 coal, and vegetable matter. During 

 a lew months the animal matter of 

 the fish is decomposed, and con- 

 verted into rich ammoniacal manures 

 without any offensive smell, and 

 when it comes to be added to the soil, 

 twenty bushels go farther and do 

 more service than forty otherwise ap- 

 plied. All fish, sea urchins, crabs, 

 shell- fish, &c., are of the greatest 

 use, the animal matter being nearly 

 identical in ultimate composition. 



The fish owes its fertilizing effects 

 to the animal matter and bone earth 

 it contains. The former is precise- 

 ly similar to flesh or blood, consist- 

 ing of 25 per cent, fibrin, the rest 

 being water. 100 pounds in decay- 

 ing produce 2J pounds of ammonia, 

 hence 400 pounds rotted in compost 

 are enough for an acre. It may be ap- 

 plied with seed in drills, broad-cast 

 over grass, wheat, &c. The great 

 effect is due to the ammoniacal por- 

 tion, for it renders the herbage dark- 

 green, and starts it very rapidly. Ar- 

 thur Young mentions several cases 

 where fish caused the straw to grow 

 so rapidly and long as to lodge ; it 

 should, therefore, be applied to well- 

 tilled lands, which yield full grain. 

 The refuse of fish prepared for salt- 

 ing is a valuable manure. 



The refuse blubber, after pressing 

 whale oil, coarse fats, train oil, has 

 been used very successfully in com- 

 posts on lands, but is very inferior 

 to whole fish, which is, indeed, one of 

 the finest manures known. In these 

 cases composts are made with fine 

 earth, coal ashes, or as above. 



FISH-PONDS. Breeding and pre- 

 serving fish in ponds is, in Germany 

 and other states of Europe, an ex- 

 tensive and lucrative employment. In 

 the United States it is a matter of 

 luxury worthy of attention. Feeding 

 or preserving ponds are without any 

 remarkable peculiarity, except suffi- 

 cient depth to allow enough water to 

 remain unfrozen during winter ; by 

 embanking any spring branch such a 



pond can be produced. Breeding 

 ponds are not always so successful ; 

 they should contain shoals for the 

 young, be fed by a pure stream, oft- 

 en of soft water, and running upon 

 a clean bottom ; the shoals should be 

 covered with rushes, and kept free 

 from fowl, eels, and newts. The 

 number of young produced, even by 

 six spawners and three or four males 

 to the acre, is such that predacious 

 fish are introduced to thin them ; for 

 this purpose, trout and perch are much 

 better than pike or pickerel, which 

 latter find their way to the shoals and 

 devour the spawn as well as the 

 young. The contents of the breed- 

 ing pond may be let off into a series 

 of feeding ponds lying on a lower lev- 

 el. Perch and trout succeed togeth- 

 er, but not with pike. Carp and tench 

 are very easily raised in the same 

 pond. Mr. Pell has cultivated shad 

 in fresh water, and the flounder has 

 also been naturalized in England. As 

 a matter of course, on the seashore, 

 salt-water ponds and fish can be pro- 

 cured. Pike and pickerel may bo 

 raised and preserved in a series of 

 three or four ponds, being fed upon 

 any small, common fish, which should 

 be replaced as often as they are much 

 destroyed. 



The spawning season is from May 

 to June, according to the fish, and 

 the young should remain until the 

 next year before removal to the sec- 

 ond pond, where they remain two 

 years, and are left to mature in the 

 third. The last pond is often provi- 

 ded with a flood-gate, so that it can 

 be effectually dragged by placing a 

 net in this situation before letting ofl 

 the waters. Another arrangement 

 for securing the large fish only is to 

 give the last pond such a figure as to 

 allow a trap to be placed between two 

 parts, so that all of a certain size are 

 confined above or taken by the trap. 

 The sides of the ponds should be shel- 

 tered by willows, elms, or other or- 

 namental trees. The removal of the 

 fish from one pond to another is 

 made by dragging with fine nets. 



The size of the fish will depend 

 upon the amount left to the acre. In 



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