April 28, 1900.] 
FOREST - AND - STREAM. 
3 S S 
Two men and team two days $10.00 
One man with shovel two days 3.00 
Team and man hauling stone three days 10.50 
May laying wail three days 4.50 
Screen boxes : 3 . 00 
Man on day ditching 1.50 
Total. $32.50 
The cost of stone was not added, as there was a quarry 
on the farm. 
Naturally sloped banks of soil, sodded to below the 
water's edge, are best for all ponds over 100 by 200 feet, 
but surface water must be kept out. All ponds of the 
size named I call "large," because when we come to 
consider the "small ponds" of the professional fish- 
culturist it will be found that they are so narrow that 
every fish in them may be seen at all times. 
The single large pond can only be worked to its greatest 
capacity by having a hatchery, taking and hatching the 
eggs, rearing yearlings and turning them out in the fol- 
lowing spring after the water has been drained off and 
all trout of the previous year taken out, thus raising 
and marketing two-j^ear-old trout each year, and a trout 
above that age is worth no more than any other fish, in 
market. See chapter on "Marketable Trout." All trout 
ponds should be drawn down once a year, or the trout will 
have a muddy flavor from decaying vegetation. 
The bottom of the pond should be fiat, if not level, and 
the fiMi should be removed with a net, instead of drain- 
ing off the water to take them out. One of my mistakes 
will illustrate this : An original idea, one of those which 
so often come out of the little end of the horn, was to 
have a drain-pipe at the bottom of the pond stopped with 
a plug, and then make a deeper place in the center, so that 
when the water was drawn off the fish would be all there 
ready to be dipped out with a hand or scoop net. What 
could be more handy? An improvement! After being in 
use three years it became necessary to take out the large 
trout and transfer them to another pond, and the water 
was drawn off. When about a foot Avas left the fish 
began to get alarmed and rush around, stirring up the 
water, which had appeared like crystal, until the motion 
of the fish could be seen, and when drawn down as low 
as possible they naturally gathered in the pit, where they 
were dipped into tubs of clean water by a man in rubber 
boots. While in the pit they began to shown signs of dis- 
tress by keeping their hoses out of the water, and the 
man who was dipping them said: "It smells like gun- 
powder." Then another idea, not original, dawned: the 
fish were being asphyxiated by the foul gas or sulphureted 
hydrogen ! 
The sluice at the inlet was opened, but too late. Out 
of the 2,500 fine breeding fish, only thirty-nine were 
saved; they died even after being placed in fresh water 
while still breathing, and an expensive lesson in the dear 
school of experience was learned. I had seen the South- 
ern darkies muddy ponds when collecting specimens for 
me, and knew that this gas, which lies at the bottom of 
all waters in which there is anything to decay, was a 
deadly poison if stirred, but the thought never occurred 
that the fish would do their own "muddying." as the 
darkies called it. 
Tliis experiment shows another fact: fish which feel 
secui-e in from 3 to 4 feet of water, and show no alarm 
at persons walking at the edge of the pond, and which 
will come readily to the surface to feed in your presence, 
or even take food from your hand, will, in water of not over 
a foot in depth, be as timid as wild fish just taken 
from the brook. This sense of security is gone ; hence it 
is better to take them with a net large enough to sweep 
the pond. It also shows what a little oversight or false 
reckoning may do toward sweeping away the results of 
expenditure and labor. In fact, there is none among our 
domestic animals more difficult to manage, for the begin- 
ner, than trout, if they may be allowed to be domesticated ; 
and their tendency to go astray is excelled by the element 
in which they live, which is notorious for having a way 
of its own, which is never our way, and for seeking it 
at all times ; hence in trout culture the great difficulties to 
be overcome are, to confine the water so that it is secure 
under extraordinary strains of flood and accident and to 
confine the fish — ^the latter being hardly as difficult as the 
former. 
If the owner does not care to go into the business of 
hatching trout for a succession, as described, he should 
provide good spawning places such as are mentioned 
in the preceding chapter, and see that nothing molests 
the spawning beds in winter. In this way he may get 
a few trout which escape the old ones, which will" keep 
them from becoming too plenty. 
Ponds in a Sertes. 
In making a series of ponds in which fish of different 
sizes are to be kept and fed a different system is pur- 
sued, the ponds being made small, in order that the water 
may be changed quickly, and so sustain more fish, and the 
stock can be seen and its condition known at all times. 
Such ponds may be 50 to 60 feet long by 10 to 12 wide 
and 4 to 6 deep, with sides of clay, if that is the material 
dug through, stone, or wood. A spawning race should 
be made at the upper end, 20 to 30 feet long by 4 feet wide, 
the bottom sloping from i to 2 feet where it enters the 
pond; this will give the pond a shape like a long-necked 
bottle. 
There should be a fall of at least 6 inches from the 
pond above into the spawning race, more if the lay of 
the land will permit, in order to aerate the water. For 
need of this see chapter on "Transportation of Fish." 
The raceway should be covered with gravel at all 
rimes; for if the fish are not well, or are troubled with 
parasites, they resort to swift water and gravel bot- 
toms to rub their sides and clean themselves. This 
gravel should be from half an inch to an inch or more 
in diameter. 
In facing the. pond with boards the preihaire of the 
earth must be provided for, or the sides will soon fall 
in, or at least become badly bulged. To prevent this, 
lay timbers on the .bottom and frame the uprights into 
them; nail the boards on the outside of the uprights, 
Avhich should extend above the ground and be braced 
apart by joists tunning across the pond a foot or more 
above water. Even these will spring in time if not 
kept stiff. Ponds well btfilt require but little work to 
keep them in order— an occasional stopping of muskrat 
or of crawfish holes, and in the spring to repair dam- 
age from frost, if any, or to patch up a bank or wall. 
There are hard soils where neither wood nor stone is 
needed (except on the spawning races, whose sides 
should be vertical), but may be made at a slope more or 
less inclined. Willows planted near the pond are valu- 
able as shade trees, or floats of boards may be of use in 
keeping the water cool, besides being a sort of protection 
from the little kingfisher. 
Perhaps an account of the way I made the ponds for 
the New York State hatchery at Cold Spring Harbor, 
Long Island, will be of interest, for they involved great 
labor. I took charge on Jan. 1, 1883, and started 
work. An old building was used to hatch eggs ob- 
tained elsewhere, and there was a spring reservoir some 
300 feet long by 20 wide, which had been made to turn 
a turbine wheel in the old building. This reservoir 
was high enough to bring water into troughs on the 
floor of the second story, from where it went to the 
floor below and was again used. Some holes in swampy 
land below had been intended for trout ponds, but they 
were covered with water from the harbor at high tide 
and geese swam up to the hatchery. 
The north side of the island is hilly, some hills being 
200 feet above tide, and they are glacial drifts, sand, 
clay, gravel, etc., plowed out frotti the mainland by the 
ice. Such a hill was within 500 feet, and I filled the 
old holes with sand, leveling the swamp. Then 
"ponds" were staked out and left as the sand was 
dumped around them, on the principle that the Irish- 
man said cannon were made; said he: "They take a 
long hole and pour brass around it." So we made 
ponds. These were temporary ponds, merely for use 
until the State could afford better, and the raceways 
were made of the cheapest hemlock boards. 
In 1887 there was an appropriation for a new hatch- 
ery made at the insistence of Commissioner Blackford, 
and I planned to put it as high as the inflow from the 
reservoir would bear, as the water went from the hatch- 
ery to the ponds, and when it was up high we could 
control it. When the ground was staked out for the 
building the northwest corner was thirteen feet in the air. 
It looked queer, but the levels were correct.. The founda- 
tion was built and I filled the grounds until there was 
no queer look about it. The old ponds were filled and new 
ones of sand built with their bottoms where the old sur- 
face was. 
For a time it was dangerous to step near a pond, but it 
settled hard. Walks and flower-beds were laid out and 
a road made east of the ponds, which is as solid to- 
day as can be. The sand holds water well. The carting 
of sand and gravel cost the State much money, but 
it is worth it. It is the most important hatchery in 
the State of New York to-day. I established the culture 
of smelts, lobsters and tomcods there, and if Mr. 
Blackford had not been removed from the Commis- 
sion for political reasons, I would have made a park 
of the place and have gone on with experiments in 
hatching oysters and clams. But a change of adminis- 
tration led to my discharge, and to-day a great un- 
sightly ice-house stands in the center of what was to be 
my "park." and there is a stable where a "conserva- 
tory" for water plants and the breeding of fresh-water 
crustaceans and insects was planned; and mv dream of 
a trout park and all its adjuncts is over. 'Blessed be 
the small-souled politicians, for they will never develop 
into anything greater! 
Dfains. 
If the lay of the land permits it, there should be some 
way of lowering the water in order to clean the pond. 
If the pond is dug in the soil there should be a drain- 
pipe put in, and this, if of wood, may be stopped by a 
plug. But a plug is difficult to get out when the water 
IS several feet deep; a box on the inner end with a 
sliding gate which can be lifted by a hook fitting into a 
hole IS better. Do not plug the lower end of the pipe 
and leave the upper end open or you have a harbor for 
eels, water snakes, or at least a hiding place for a large 
cannibal trout, for a trout of that kind prefers solitude. 
If the drain is a square bqx-trunk it may be turned up 
at a right angle and used as an overflow stand-pipe, if 
the water is not required to be kept up for any reason. 
In this case make a sliding groove for the dams, which 
may be lifted one by one, and are kept down by pins or 
wedges at the top. 
Tile pipe are not good for drains. I have laid them 
arid relaid them many times, cementing them most care- 
fully and then reinforced the joints with another coat- 
ing of cement, but tree roots would force their way in 
somehow and either fill the pipe or break it. At Cold 
Spring Harbor, New York, I piped a spring from an 
upper level in 6- inch tile pipe, and it filled ud with 
roots. In one case the root of a locust tree had* found 
an entrance, and while only as thick as a sheet of letter 
paper and half an inch wide where it went in, we took 
out 37 feet of branching, matted roots, which nearly 
filled the pipe. Then I had the pipe relaid with extra 
care, but to no purpose; the roots would have water 
and kti6w how to get it, even where there was no leak. 
Here is a chance for a question about the habits of 
tree roots in^ their search for water; but having fought 
this "instinct" of roots for many years, I have given up 
trying to solve the riddle. 
Remembering these things, when v.'e obtained an- ' 
other^ spring to bring down, I bought 4-inch iron "soil 
pipe,' caulked the collars with oakum and then ran 
lead around on the oakum. After this the lead was 
ca.ulked, and the pipe will carry water for a century 
without interference from roots. This method, and pump 
logs, are the only means I know of to convey water under- 
ground without interference from roots, if there are trees 
near. A willow or a locust will send roots a hundred 
yards for- water, if it is there, while on the other side of 
the tree the root.s might not extend 50 feet. ' . 
It is said that iron-filings mixed with cement will 
keep roots from the joints of drain tile. Having no ex- 
perience with thiS; It is mentioned without comment 
Dams. 
These cannot be too carefuly made to contend with 
pressure, leakage, muskrats. crawfish, frost and other 
things which are ever working to he!p water get to the 
lowest possible point. The following is from a news- 
paper which came after this chapter was begun : 
NuNDA, N. Y., Jan. 30, 1899.— Miller's Dam went out 
this morning. The .washout, which resulted from un- 
dermining by muskrats, entails heavy loss to mill own- 
ers who have utilized the water. The disaster occurred 
at a time when the valuable ice crop was nearly ready to 
harvest. In building a dam, whether of earth, stone, 
logs or a combination of any or all of these materials, 
the greatest care must be taken to lay the foundation so 
deep that no trickle of water excavation, of muskrat or 
crawfi.5h can go under it, and at the sides the dam should 
extend so far as to prevent such mishaps. 
So much depends upon the nature of the ground and 
the materials to be used that it is impossible to go fur- 
ther into the construction of dams than to say: Make, 
them about twice as strong as you think they need be 
and — then make them a little stronger. 
Screens for Ponds. . 
Screens should be made at least ten times larger than 
the space required for the water. For instance, if the 
flow will pass through a hole 6 inches square, the 
screen should be at the least calculation 19 inches each 
way, giving 361 square inches, which will allow for 
some portions of it to become clogged, and yet pass 
the water through easily; this also diminishes the 
chance of stoppage by its slower flow. A good form 
for a small outlet is a trough, say 6 feet long by 2 
feet wide and 20 inches deep, with a dam near the 
lower end about 15 inches high. When the screens 
are placed in this, above the dam, slanting the top down 
stream at an angle of 45 degrees, it gives a good screen 
surface, the dam being placed at the height at which 
the water is to stand in the pond and the screen made to 
slide between slats. Great care must be taken in setting 
such a trough, if in earth, that the water does not work 
around and under it, or that frost does not lift it out of 
place; the former may be provided for by wide flanges,^ 
which make a sort of bulkhead and obstruct the direct 
passage of crawfish, earthworms or other borers, which, 
by starting a small leak, will soon cause a large one 
before its presence is suspected. To guard against up- 
heaval by frost, in a climate where the brook trout love 
to dwell, is a more difficult matter; but my own experi- 
ence on this point leads to a preference for light soils 
for tamping around the outlet box, instead of clay, 
which I first used on account of its resistance to water, 
but afterward abandoned, after a winter's fight with 
frost, in favor of a sandy, gravelly soil which was found 
to serve the purpose as well, as far as the frost was con- 
cerned, but which afforded excellent digging for the 
crawfish (fresh- water lobster) with which the stream 
was infested, and whose tunnels, once made in clay, 
never by any chance closed up; and, knowing their dis- 
like to work in either sawdust or tanbark, a space of 
about a foot was filled with these materials so that there 
was a barrier running around the box, backed in front 
and rear by soil which was thought to be the least affected 
by frost, 
The screens should be made with as large spaces be- 
tween the slats or wires as the size of the fish demands, 
and it will be found convenient to have the outlet boxes 
of the different ponds and the frames all of one size, so 
as to be readily interchangeable. The wires or slats for 
the fish of half a pound and over may have a half-inch 
space between them, and for this purpose well galva- 
nized iron wire is best, or, if not convenient, a screen can 
be made of planed lath, set edgeways; while for year- 
lings well-tarred wire cloth of four wires to the inch is 
necessary, and for the fry during the first months at 
least fourteen wires to the inch. Screens for the inlets 
are best placed perpendicularly, in order that no trout 
may lie under them and shoot up stream when the 
screen is raised. The disposition of water to find its 
own way, and that way being always different from our 
way, combined with the disposition of trout, in their 
yoiinger days, to prefer any location rather than that 
which we have provided for them, renders the subject 
of .screens and appliances for confining them a very im- 
portant one to the fishcuhurist, and one Hable to defeat 
all his calculations and waste all his time, labor and 
money, if not properly considered. I have kept sharks 
and whales iri confinement, and have seen the wildest of 
beasts and birds so kept, but of all animals that man 
confines there, is none so uncertain to be found in the 
morning, where it was apparently so secure the night" 
before, as a brook trout of an inch and a half long. It 
is an impossibility to confine them in a stream, and verv 
difficult in a pond, as a crack or worm hole in a board, 
or in the earth or masonrj-. will be found by a hundred 
little eyes, and its size tested by half as many heads; 
and if water flows through it, they are very apt to follow, 
no matter where it may lead, nor whether return is 
possible. The instinct of a trout impels it to jump at a 
fall or in going up stream, hence provision must be 
made to stop them from leaping over the inlet screen by 
a projecting board or other device, more especially in 
the fall of the year, when they wish to ascend to the 
upper waters to seek suitable places for spawning. 
If the fry are kept for the first nine months or a year 
in ".rearing boxes," it is not so hard to confine them as 
it is in the outdoor ponds, where the woodwork has to 
be fitted into, the earth; and this system has its advan- 
tage,s, which are ' security of confinement, compactness, 
the ease with- which they can be inspected and the larger 
one.^ removed from their weaker brethren, and the pro- 
tection from bird, beast, reptile and insect enemies to 
whi^h their relatives in the outdoor pond are exposed. 
To counterbalance these advantages, we have in the 
rearing boxes more . care and labor, and less natural 
food. Still, if the labor can be given, it is the surest 
way, for the first three months at least, after which time 
they are- better able to stand the exnosure of outdoor 
pond.-^ and; avoid their •enernies,_ which decrease' in numbers 
with increasing 'size. .. ; i-- 
There is always one fence in summer time which de- 
tains the trout more effectually than any screen. This 
is the stream of warm water which the trout brook emntie=i 
into, and, although they may seek its depth for food 
in winter after running down off the spawning beds, 
fhc fir«t hint of a rising temperature sends them back to 
the cooler spring waters. ■ 
A good self-cleaning screen for large trout is a re- 
