FISH -BREEDING. 461 



fish are not to be had, fish-ponds are common, and fish culture 

 is almost a matter of as much concern as agriculture. Great 

 care is even bestowed on breeding and rearing the coarser 

 kinds, including those that belong to the Carp family. Such 

 fish are considered almost worthless here, where there are so 

 many firm-fleshed, well-flavored species of the Perch family ; 

 and our sluggish waters, where Trout would not thrive, could 

 be as easily stocked with these, and with the ugly though 

 excellent Catfish, as with the soft insipid Cyprinoids. 



Whatever be the condition of the water one may con- 

 trol, sluggish or rapid, shaded or exposed ; whether a brook, 

 or a pond of an acre or two, fed even by a diminutive stream, 

 he may breed fish whose natural habitat is such water, or 

 make them in a great degree capable of living and thriving 

 in their circumscribed home. 



From my boyhood I have known ponds stocked with large 

 fish which were not native to such waters. One instance was 

 the transfer of what was called the "James Eiver Chub," 

 the magnificent fresh-water Bass, Orystes salmoides. They 

 were taken from the James Eiver and placed in mill-ponds 

 fed by small brooks a hundred miles north of Eichmond, and 

 in a few years by natural propagation and increase became 

 numerous, many of them attaining a weight of five pounds. 

 The White Perch, Labrax pallidus, is prolific in ponds and 

 canals. It is even said the Eockfish will live entirely in 

 fresh water, though I doubt whether it will grow to a large 

 size if debarred from returning to salt water in winter. The 

 Shad, which Mr. Pell produced by artificial propagation, must 

 certainly have degenerated if confined to his ponds, and, I 

 think, would most likely cease to reproduce after several 

 generations ; for they are anadromous fish, and their annual 

 visit to the sea is requisite to their perfection. 



I have seen Trout breed and grow rapidly in a pond cover- 



