JxJtT 18, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
NEW JERSEY PROTECTIVE WORK. 
From the Monthly Report of the State Fish and Qame Protector 
for June. 
TSe work of netting the Passaio for the purpose of re- 
moving the carp has been begun, but it is making rathf r 
slow progress on account of ihe novelty of the undertak- 
ing. It was found that the river's bed was obstructed by 
numerous logs and sharp rocks, rendering the use of sweep 
seines very difficult or utterly impossible. Pound nets 
are now in operation and promise better results There 
is little doubt when the approach of the cold weather 
causes the carp to move about more than they do in warm 
weather that their numbers will be materially diminished. 
Whether the stock of carp can be so reduced as to tend to 
their extermination by the fiah to be introduced from 
Lake Erie is a question which the future will decide. 
The experiment is an inexpensive one, and the direct and 
positive benefit which we know will result will be the 
introduction of valuable food and game fish from the 
great lakes. 
The menhaden fishing has just begun, and so far as I 
have been able to learn up to the present date there 
have been no violations of the law, no vessels appaaring 
along the New Jersey coast which have not been duly 
licensed by the Commiasion. Fishing for menhaden 
began later than usual this season for several reasons In 
the first place, the menhaden people had a great deal of 
stock on hand which commanded very low prices, and 
consequently there was little incentive to them to begio 
operations, especially if, ia addition to their usual ex- 
penses, they were compelled to pay a license fee. An- 
other reason why there was less anxiety to begin opera- 
tions was because there is less demand for the product 
of the so-called ' fish factories." A substitute for the 
oil expressed from menhaden has been found in a pro- 
duct of petroleum, which, while it answers the purposes 
of fish oil in a great maoy respects, commands a great 
deal lower price in the markets. From present indi- 
cations, fishing for menhaden has seen its best day and 
is beginning to decline. The whale fishery gave way 
to the fishing for menhaden, and the latter promises 
in a few years to become so reduced in volume as not to 
give rise to continued fears of injury to the fiah supply. 
There is little doubt that the annual catch of menhaden 
along the New Jersey coast will be less this year than it 
has been for a long time, and the people of this State will 
have the satisfaction of knowing that such persons as 
still continue the pursuit of these fish contribute a revenue 
for the defraying of expenses of keeping up the supply of 
other kinds of fiah. 
The most important litigation determined during the 
month was the appeal case of a number of Italians in the 
county of Atlantic. These men had for a considerable 
period paid attention to no law whatever, claiming that 
chey had a right to do as they saw fit on their own prem- 
ises or on property owned by friends where they had been 
given the privilege of gunning. A number of prosecu- 
tions instituted last fall were bitterly fought by the ac- 
cused and when judgment was rendered against them in 
the lower courts appeals followed. I am glad to be able to 
report that the Court of Common Pleas of Atlantic county 
nas sustained every conviction had. 
The record of prosecutions for the month is the fol- 
lowing: 
By Warden Brown— David Williams, klllinK song birds; fined $30 
and costs. 
By Warden Hendershott— Israel Struble, Martin M. Bunn and Em- 
met Struble, having baas unlawfully in possession; fined $40 and 
costs. 
By Warden Shinn— Samuel Eeed, deatroying birds' nests; thirty 
days in jail. 
By Warden Hendershott— Floyd D. Aber, blrdnesting; sentence 
suspended on payment of costs. 
By Warden Hendershott- Elvin Hill and Ffarry Q. Hfil, having bass 
unlawfully in possession; fined $20 and costs. 
By Warden Huston— Edward Pidcock, fishing for shad on Sundays; 
fined $100 and costs. 
By Fish and Qame Protector Shriner — Paulo Harrie, having oriole 
in possession; fiaed $20 and costs. 
By Warden Brown -Edward Simon, having bass UQlawfulIy in pos- 
session; acquitted. 
By Warden Hill— W C. Fortner, using gill nei; case undisposed of. 
By Warden Kicardo— Sebastian Bena, netting fish: fined f JO and 
costs. 
Charles A. Shriner, Fish and Game Protector. 
Patkrson, N. J., July 1. 
NEW METHOD OF POND CULTURE.* 
BY DR. JOUSSET DE BELLESME. 
[Translated by Dr. Tarletou H, Bean, by permission of the author, and 
read at the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the 
American Fisheries Society.] 
[At the solicitation of Count de Briey, President of the Central Soci- 
ety for the Protection of Fresh-water Fisheries of Belgium, M. de 
Bi uyn, Minister of Agriculture, requested Dr. Jousset de Bellesme, 
Director of Fishculture of Paris, to deliver a lecture on pond culture 
at the Exposition of Fisheries and Fishculture at Antwerp in 1894. 
That lecture was published in the journal of the Belgian Society men- 
tioned in January, February and March, 1895. 
Dr. Jousset de Bellesme had previously published a brief account of 
his new method of pond culture In Compie* iJewdus^ca d Sc., Paris, 
Nov. 26, 1894. A paper upon the same subject was published in a 
French newspaper, Le Oaulois, by A. de Marcillae, in March, 1895, criti- 
cising the method proposed by Dr. Jousset de Bellesme; and in Remie 
des Sciences Naturelles AppUqnees, Paris, Ko. 17, December, 1895, M. 
Jules de Uuerne takes exception to the statements made by the Direc- 
tor in terms unnecessarily severe; indeed, in such a manner as to 
arouse suspicion of an unworthy motive. 
There is no question as to the value of the experiments herein de- 
scribed, and however much American flshcultudsts may differ from 
Bome of the distinguished author's opinioni, they cannot fail to find in 
the article many useful hints for their guidance. We have to thank 
him for the information that the quinnat salmon will reproduce with- 
out going to sea, when three years old and weighing 1-3 to lolbs , and 
that they can be successfully and profitably reared in ponds. For 
convenience the following table of equivalents of the weights and 
measures used in this article is given: 
1,000 grams=I iilogram=ai6lb<i. avoirdupois. 
1 centimeter =10 millimeters=*5in. 
1 hectare=2.471 acres. T. H. B.] 
In Belgium, as well as in France, ponds have not taken 
the rank to which they are entitled in increasing the food 
* Mouvelle JMethode de Culture des Etangs. Par le Docteur Jousset 
de Bellesme, PSche et Pisciculture, Brussels. Nos. 1, 2, 8, Jan.-Mar., 
1895; pp. a-11, 38-40, 50-54. 
supply and supporting industries, because, instead of con- 
stantly improving their system of culture, the breeders 
of fiah have remained hypnotized by obsolete methods, 
and have found nothing better than the indefinite per- 
petuation of the carp, which has been practiced from the 
thirteenth centUry. 
It is desirable to abandon this plan and in this piro- 
gressiVe age to give up ancient errors. After I have 
shown the result of the extended researches which I have 
made upon this interesting BUbj^ct, I hope all your doubts 
will be removed and you will be convinced, as I am my- 
self, that pond culture Fs susceptible of taking its place in 
the first rank of tishcultUral industries. 
At present it is rare that a pond suitably located yields 
60 francs per hectare of surface, and again, how often 
they do not give more than a revenue of 30 or 40 francs 
per hectare every two or three years. It will be admitted 
that with auch meager returns this industry will be greatly 
neglected. 
I hope to demonstrate to you that if this had been dif- 
ferently managed the culture of the pond might be made 
to yield 700, 800 or even 1,000 francs per hectare. 
I will divide my subject into two parts: 
First — I will give a rapid survey of the present state of 
pond culture. 
Second — I will have the honor to show you the new 
method which I have evolved from experiments continued 
about ten years at the Aquarium of the Trocadero in the 
rearing and reproduction of the SalmonidcB. 
I have often asked myself why the monks especially 
selected the carp among the numerous fishes which in- 
habit our fresh waters. Of course we can offer nothing 
but conjecture upon this point. My belief is that the carp 
in the fourteenth century was not exactly the fish which 
we know to-day, and that it was distinguished then from 
other species by qualities which it no longer possesses. 
I fear that what I am going to say will excite contra- 
diction, and I will be sorry if any one attributes to me 
bad intentions with regard to a fish which gives pleasure 
to the angler and is sought after by many people; but the 
love of truth leads me to state that from the culinary 
point of view and as a food the carp is far from occupy- 
ing the first place among the fresh-water fishes which 
are offered in our markets. It ranks in the quality of its 
flfsh below the salmon, trout, eel and frequently even the 
perch, gudgeon and barb. If any one disbelieves this 
statement it can be sustaiued by a glance at th<* list of 
prices of fish in our markets. It will be seen that while 
a kilogram of salmon costs 10 francs, of trout 8 francs, of 
eel 7 francs and of gudgeon 5 francs, a kilogram of carp 
costs about 3 francs. These are the- average prices of 
the Paris market. Three francs a kilogram! Who 
hopes to establish that at this price the carp is an advan- 
tageous food? Lpiaving out the always disputed question 
of taste, the food value of the fish must be considered. 
Buy a carp of 1 kilogram, cook it, it will not weigh more 
than 991.80 grams 
Remove the skin and weigh it, it is 96.90 gracns 
Take out the viscera, which weigh., .....379.76 grams 
Carefully remove the skeleton , SJOI.78 grams 
There remains of Qesh only 312.36 grams 
Thus from this fish, for which we have paid 3 francs, we obtain only 
812 grams of flesh; that is for the flesh almost ac the rate of 10 francs 
per kilogram. 
If we take a salmon or a trout of 1 liilogram see what we obtain: 
After cooking it weighs , 965.70 grams 
SklQ , , 49.90 grama 
Vicera , ,,„. 199 . 80 grams 
Skeleton ...123.10 grams 
Flesh , , 593. 80 grams 
It is unnecessary to emphasize further the inferiority of 
the carp. 
How then comes it that in spite of this inferiority, which 
has doubtless been remarked and commented upon by 
many other persons than myself, the carp still continues 
to be the only fish cultivated in ponds? There are several 
reasons for this; the carp really possesses several valuable 
qualities from the point of view of the fish breeder. Of 
all our fresh-water fishes its growth is the most rapid. At 
four years it weighs two kilograms and f re quently arrives 
at this weight earlier. 
It is extremely hardy and is not injured by freezing, 
nor by impurities in the water. Its culture is attended 
with uniform results; finally the carp requires less care 
than other fishes. Its food is vegetable and one may 
really say that this fish raises itself; this indeed is the 
priacipal cause of its success; many proprietors are satis- 
fied with small results upon the condition that they do 
not cost any trouble. 
I said at the commencement that this method is to be 
abandoned. Every medal has its r verse. We may say 
that the hardiness of the carp has been the origin of its 
degeneration as a species. The fishculturist grows care- 
less about the selection of the breeding fish, and very often 
before having his attention called to it the carp have 
spawned in the pond quite promiscuously. Nevertheless 
he sells the young for restocking at the same price as if 
they had been of a good race; also through this negligence 
the pond deteriorates, as in Sologne, where the carp has 
greatly degenerated and has acquired a factitious quality 
of reproducing too early. The Sologne people have re- 
marked upon this without comprehending its significance. 
They say in this connection that the carp is precocious. 
As a result, it frequently happens that the alevins placed 
in a pond to grow begin to breed before they have reached 
a marketable siza, and they have no commercial value. 
This characteristic has been acquired by living many 
generations in ponds which are too warm and has become 
fixed by heredity. High temperature stimulates the re- 
productive functions, and the animal becomes incapable 
of growing large. 
Is it advisable to cultivate such a mediocre fish? Here 
are some figures which will answer this question, and 
without burdening you with a lona and detailed enumer- 
ation, I will furnish the two extreme terms of this series. 
First, the minimum. 
In 1892, in Sologne, the proprietors of ponds had difii- 
culty to sell carp at 70 centimes a kilogram. After de- 
ducting 4 per cent, and the expenses of fishing, which 
would give about 53 centimes a kilogram, and as a hectare 
produced an average of not more than 80 kilograms, this 
is a yield of about 45 francs a hectare, but it should be 
noted in this regard that the ponds are not fished oftener 
than once in two or three years. Certainly this is small, 
and indeed some ponds return 60, 70 and even 80 francs 
per hectare. 
The most highly esteemed carp establishments are those 
of Dubisch, in Silesia, which have frequently been men • 
tioned of late years and have given the beat results. A 
hectare has yielded according to cfflcial reports as high as 
132 francs, a result which has never been exceeded; but 
this method involves much care and labor. This is a very 
excellent result, but how insignificant compared with a 
yield of 700 francs per hectare, which I have mentiohed 
in the beginning. Truth compels me to say that it is not 
with the carp that this climax is reabhed, but with anothet 
fi.'ih. 
1 have thoiight from the beginning that it wodld be 
possible to replace the carp by another of bur fresh-watet 
fiah , such as the eel or trout, the prices of which are much 
higher. 
For the culture of the eel special conditions are essen- 
tial, and the habits of the fish are such as to make its cul^ 
ture in ponds uncertain and undesirable. 
On account of its high price the trout has already been 
made the subject of many experiments, but of all those I 
have seen undertaken I have not observed a single one 
which has been a success from a commercial point of vieWt 
The reason can be easily stated. 
First, the ordinary pond rarely contains water of a tem- 
perature during the summer sufficiently low to suit the 
trout or even to keep it alive, for this fish will not endure 
a temperature above 18" centigrade; besides, the calm 
and stagnant water of the pond is not calculated to please 
it. 
It is a fish of rapid streams, of waters incessantly mov- 
ing and aerated, of the rapid cascades, which it ascends 
joyfully even when they boil like a cauldron; finally, it is 
a carnivorous fish, a great feeder, and when at liberty in 
a watercourse it has t&e habit of migrating if a suflicient 
supply of food is not present and establishing itself else- 
where. In a pond the trout is a prisoner and it must sub- 
mit to the conditions imposed upon it, and these do not 
agree with its independent spu-it. When the small fish 
available for it are exhausted, and they are rapidly ex- 
hausted, the young come to a standstill and the fish are 
reduced to insect food, scarcely sustaining themselves, 
and do not grow any more. 
Add to this the fact that the breeders who have made 
these attempts and who have favorable conditions for the 
fish have made a mistake by attempting to cultivate the 
trout by methods which they apply to the carp. This is a 
fundamental error; a carnivorous animal will never ac- 
commodate itself to the mode of life or conditions which 
are suitable for herbivorous ones. For all these reasons' 
the rearing of the trout in ponds, though often attempted, 
has not become current among fishcultui'ists. Still, I am 
convinced that under favorable conditions this rearing 
will be passible, but it will be necessary to follow a totally 
different method. 
I have in my experiments here been greatly aided by 
the importation of ^ahnomdoi, which have furnished the 
means necessary to solve this problem by having placed 
in my hands a fish of superior delicacy of flesh and com- 
bining all the qualities desirable for pond culture. 
In 1879 the Aquarium of the Trocadero received, 
through the courtesy of the U. S, Fish Commission and 
at the requpst of the National Society of Acclimatizition, 
tha eggs of three species of salmon successfully cultivated 
in America. 
I devoted myself ardently to the rearing of these fish 
with the object of introducing and acclimatizing them in 
the waters of France. I have rested my hopes upon two 
of them, for I have not been mislead as to the difficulties 
inherent in this experiment. But the way being pre- 
pared, I have not lost sight of pond culture, and as I grad- 
ually learned more of the habits and characteristics of 
these new species I have not been slow to remark that 
one of them combines the qualities which make it suit- 
able for simple and economic culture, and that by modi- 
fying the methods one may secure a new pond fish, the 
cultivation of which will be infinitely more remunerative 
than that of the carp. 
Without entering more into details I will give the 
names of the three species of fish. 
First: California salmon. 
Its technical name is Salmo quinnat, and it is called the 
California salmon because it is very abundant in the 
rivers of Califoimia. Its form is elongate, its sides silvery 
white, the back greenish gray or bluish and spotted 
with numerous brown spots, the head is large, mouth 
wide, caudal fin deeply forked and pointed at the ex- 
tremities. It has no red spots on the sides like the trout. 
Its size is large, individuals weighing 20 kilograms having 
been taken. Its flesh is extremely delicate, of a yellow- 
ish, apricot color, sometimes deeply pink. It spawns in 
October. 
Second: The rainbow trout, Salmo irideus. 
This is also from California. In general form it resem- 
bles the common trout {Salmo fario). Its sides are yel- 
lowish white, the back brown marked with elongated 
spots descending very low on the body, the caudal fin is 
truncate, but the fish is especially distinguished by a 
beautiful rose band which extends along the sides from 
the opercle to the caudal fin. The opercle itself is strong- 
ly tinged with pink. The rainbow trout does not reach 
the proportions of the California salmon, it does not ex- 
ceed 50 to 60 centimeters (20 to 24in.); its fiesh is some- 
times white with a tinge of yellow, sometimes pink, ac- 
cording to surroundings, less delicate than that of the 
California salmon. It spawns in April. 
Third: The brook trout or Salmo fontinalis. 
Its form resembles that of the trout; ic is a very pretty 
fish. Its fius are margined with white, which, with its 
dark sides, spotted with white, give it a striking resem- 
blance to the omhre- chevalier. Like the rainbow trout, it 
does not reach a great size. 
These three kinds of fish have been made the subject 
of many expariments in the Trocadero Aquarium, I have 
studied their habits and characteristics, in order to ap- 
preciate their qualitips ard their advantages, and have 
endeavored to learn thoroughly their reproduction and 
rearing. 
The qualities which radically distinguish these species 
from our native Salmonidce are important. 
First, their growth is more rapid. It is possible in ten 
months to bring them to a weight of 300 grams. At three 
years they may meaeiure 28 to 32in. and weigh from 13 to 
ISlbs. They do not offer any difficulties on account of 
purity of the water and accept surroundings to which 
our trout would not submit. They endure high temper- 
ature; they will live in roily water of a temperature of 
25" centigrade, while the trout succumbs at 18°. Finally 
these salmon, in spite of their name of salmon, are not 
obliged to go to sea to prepare for their reproduction. 
