16 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
Waters can be stocked with fish in proportion to the food 
they contain, and as much attention should be paid to stocking 
‘our waters with food as with fish, as it is impossible for fish to 
thrive unless they are supplied with the proper food. We have 
also stocked some waters with crawfish for food for the black 
bass. I have observed that bass thrive much better and are a 
finer table-fish in all waters containing this food, and would ad- 
vise parties interested in waters containing black bass to examine 
them and see if they contain the crawfish, and if they do not to 
put them in. I can furnish the stock for any public waters in 
this state. They increase very fast. One or two thousand breed- 
ers would soon stock almost any waters. A cheap way to get 
them would be to set the boys to work in the vicinity of some 
streams containing them. Of course the nearer to the water you 
wish to stock the better; two or three boys, in the course of a 
few days would catch all that is necessary. 
It isa wonder to me that more attention is not paid by farm- 
ers to raising frogs. There is scarcely a farm but has in some 
portion of it a soft springy or marshy spot which is not utilized 
in any way. lf the farmer would dig out a place twenty or 
thirty feet square and from one to five feet deep,and build a 
tight board-fence around it about three feet high, and put in a 
hundred or so mature frogs, he could with little trouble raise all 
he wanted for his own table, and perhaps furnish a few for mar- 
ket, andif he learned to raise them on a large scale, could realize 
more than from regular agricultural pursuits. There is still a 
great deal to be learned in this direction, and whoever first 
learns to raise them successfully on a large scale, will be rich. 
I have given my experience with them in “Fish Hatching and 
Fish Catching, by Mr. Roosevelt and myself.” 
I have, in some articles that I have written, referred to the 
crawfish, or fresh-water crab. They are being sold in many of 
our markets, and have become one of the articles of food in this 
country. I will give a short sketch of my observations of their 
habits and how they can be raised. They are natives of very 
many waters nearly all over the United States, and can be raised 
easily if the pond is properly prepared. Dig a pond five or six 
feet deep, and have it cover a space equivalent to fiity feet 
