274 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1 9 10 



The third section is another step higher and is used as 

 workroom and refrigerator. The fourth is an extension 

 of the third with a further step upward on the roof hne. 

 It is used as an ice house, being iilled from the road which 

 is immediately behind it and on a level with the eaves. 



Around the hatchery are small ponds for live food and 

 for isolation, and in front, set in the fourth pond, are the 

 outdoor tanks to which the newly hatched fish are trans- 

 ferred in the spring. 



In these tanks they are kept until they are old enough to 

 fend for themselves. The older trout are not above eat- 

 ing the very young, and a few two-pounders will work ter- 

 rific havoc in a pond of babies. In fact, four-year-old trout 

 will eat one-year-olds, so that the necessity for two or three 

 ponds and grading is absolute when there are many fish, as 

 the most systematic and thorough feeding will not eliminate 

 these cannibalistic tendencies. 



This matter of feeding is, next to an adequate year-round 

 water supply, the prime factor in trout raising. Mr. Sea- 

 man's experiments in this regard have had important re- 

 sults. He has shown that with proper feeding, he can grow 

 brook trout (which naturalists call a charr and not a trout 

 at all) with the same exquisite flavor as that of the wild 

 trout. This many growers have failed to do because of the 

 time-honored custom of feeding chopped liver. Even when 

 these are untainted, the flavor is transmitted and it there- 

 fore becomes necessary to revert as far as possible to 

 natural food. This consists of insects and smaller fish. At 

 Yama-no-uchi outside ponds and streams are set aside for 

 the propagation of fish food and this summer a series of 

 experiments in the growing of food insects is to be tried 

 with the assistance of members of the faculty of Cornell 

 University. At present the trout ponds are equipped with 

 clusters of electric lights set close to the water. These at- 

 tract myriads of night flying insects which, touching the 

 water, find a ready welcome. 



When artificial feeding is necessary, as during the winter 

 months, in case it is desired to fatten the fish for the spring, 

 chopped fresh beef and wheat pancakes cut into small 

 squares are used. Even the free use of these, it has been 

 found, makes no diflerence in the flavor of the fish though 

 Mr. Seaman strongly favors the exclusive use of live food. 



While we were visiting the ponds the time came for the 

 trout's daily meal. As we approached the lower pool 

 where the biggest fish are, there was no sign of aquatic 

 habitation. With a tin dipper finely chipped beef was 

 broadcasted within a radius of ten feet. Instantly there 

 was turmoil. Magnificent speckled fellows from fifteen 

 to eighteen inches long came dashing to the surface with all 

 manner of twist and curve. Heads and tails and sometimes 

 whole shining bodies appeared above water and disap- 

 peared in the exhilirating scramble. 



Mr. Seaman took a piece of beef between thumb and 

 finger and held it at the surface ten inches from shore. 

 It was gone with a flash in the next second. 



In the next pond, of the eight-inch trout, the excite- 

 ment was even greater for here there were about io,ooo 

 fish each apparently with a prodigious appetite. Altogether 

 Mr. Seaman wintered about 50,000 trout and he will have 

 half a million more from his hatchery this spring. In two 

 years these will be of edible size and could be sold in the 

 New York market at from seventy-five cents to $1 a pound. 



This subject of trout breeding has been treated at some 

 length not only because of its pre-eminent success at Yama- 

 no-uchi but because it suggests a new field of practical and 

 scientific interest to the city man with moderate means who 

 is fond of the outdoor life. Enough has been said to show 

 that on the scientific and technical side it is a fascinating 

 study and that on the practical side it is a hobby whose 

 success can be measured in very large profits. Further than 

 that it gives a reason for developing an estate in the ideal 



location, a mountain gully, and for the building of ponds, 

 than which there is no more beautiful or satisfying feature. 



The Yama-no-uchi ponds arc true beauty spots at all 

 times and they are large enough for skating in winter and 

 a little canoeing in summer. On the shady side of one of 

 them a little tea garden overhanging the water has been 

 built and this is being covered with Wistaria after the Jap- 

 anese fashion, adding still another charm to their at- 

 tractiveness. 



Overlooking the ponds and the whole valley below a 

 Japanese tea-house has been built and this is another of the 

 adaptations from the Orient that, however foreign, fits into 

 the picture with surprising aptness. The house is built on 

 a ledge of bare rock, the lower part of the usual rough 

 boulder masonry in pleasing inward curves and containing 

 a small reservoir. Above this is the tea-house itself, wholly 

 Japanese in design but built of native chestnut by American 

 workmen all recruited from the village below. It is one of 

 the distinct achievements of Yama-no-uchi's development 

 that it has been entirely the work of native labor. Not 

 even city carpenters were used but Napanoch men whose 

 regular wage scale was $2 and $2.25 a day. There has 

 thus been a saving throughout of more than fifty per cent, 

 in the cost of labor, made possible, of course, by the most 

 expert and intimate personal supervision. 



It is well worth mentioning here that this detail plan and 

 its fulfillment is entirely the work of an American woman, 

 Mrs. Olive Brown Sarre, an authority on Japanese archi- 

 tecture and landscape gardening and Japanese arts and 

 crafts. That Mrs. Sarre was able to build this exquisite 

 tea-house practically without the driving of a nail, using the 

 Japanese joints and wood pin methods exclusively and em- 

 ploying only ordinary American village carpenters is per- 

 haps adequate tribute to her ability, though there are a hun- 

 dred other evidences of it throughout this charming and 

 unique estate. 



Another notable feature of this work is the fact that only 

 native materials were used. The estate includes several 

 hundred acres of woodland which furnishes a plentiful 

 supply of chestnut, the best substitute for the beautiful Jap- 

 anese woods, and stone was found in abundance on the 

 ground. The economy of this procedure is apparent. 



A very charming site for the house which has not yet 

 been built and which is also to be of Japanese architecture, 

 is reserved near the ponds. Till then one climbs on up the 

 hill to the edge of the plateau. Here, over-hanging the 

 valley and with a magnificent view of the opposite ranges is 

 the "farmhouse." One quotes farmhouse and emphasizes 

 It with a little agreeable irony because It Is really just 

 the sort of earthly paradise most of us have been dreaming 

 of, provided our Imagination for pleasant things is good. 



One end of the house Is log cabin, the other Swiss chalet, 

 and a more charming and harmonious combination were dif- 

 ficult to find. A great low living-room with wide old- 

 fashioned fire-place and sweeping outlook forms the center 

 of the scheme. Therefrom are bedrooms each with Its fire- 

 place, the stripped logs and planed beams showing frankly 

 wherever they were needed. 



Up here is the practical end of the estate. It is not in- 

 tended to form part of the Japanese scheme though the 

 touch of an artist-craftsman is shown in a hundred details 

 One's interest is aroused by the model chicken houses with 

 their aristocratic occupants, by the large experimental 

 gardens and orchards where soil problems common to this 

 not over-productive district are being worked out for the 

 common good, and by the squab house where Mr. Seaman 

 is proving the profitableness of this seemingly uncertain in- 

 dustry. On our visit we met a flock of eight or more hand- 

 some young turkeys and find that the still more difficult 

 problem of raising the Christmas bird in this climate has 

 also been solved with unequivocal success. 



