65 
began in the usual way of making ponds, and raised a 
good many trout by feeding curds, etc., as is usual. I 
am fortunately located on the side of a hill, which is all 
springs : dig anywhere almost, and you find a large spring ; 
and I conceived the idea of making some natural ponds, 
and I have now some twenty-five ponds, varying in size 
from one hundred to three hundred feet in length and fifty 
to seventy-five feet in width. Some of them are smaller; 
some round, a hundred feet in diameter, perhaps. Scoop 
up an earth bank at the lower side, and let the spring 
come up and fill it. Some of them the weeds grow up 
in them naturally. Others, I take the weeds out of the 
little stream or outlet—I don’t know the name of the 
weed, it is not the watercress that the freshwater shrimp 
inhabit ; there is a little, low, close freshwater weed that 
fills the pond full almost, I take it out of places where it 
is already growing and put it inother ponds. That weed 
is alive with the freshwater shrimp, in its natural condi- 
tion. I took out quantities of it and put it in these 
ponds, and they have filled up with it. I do not touch 
them or clean them out, but let it grow. I raise all my 
fry without a particle of food, until they are yearlings. [ 
put in a pond 50,000 good healthy fry. I never touch 
them, never feed them, never look at them until they are 
yearlings. Some of them grow to six inches. This is a 
pronounced success, and a practical one; one which I am 
doing year after year. 
Mr. Hoxrte—I would like to ask what proportion of 
those little fry grow up to yearlings. If you put in 
50,000 fry, how manv yearlings do you get? 
Mr. FarrspanKs—lI do not know that I can arrive at 
that. It is pretty hard work to count fish of that size. 
But all that I want. I should say fifty per cent. of them, 
as a guess; fully as many as that. Fully as many as I 
ever grow by feeding artificially; in fact more. After 
they arrive at yearlings I transplantthem. But certainly 
you can raise in a natural pond by growing the weeds 
