132 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Marcs 20, 1902. 
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 beginner, 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 Jn a Series. 
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 1 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 six inches from the 
pond above into the spawning race, more if the lay of 
the land will permit, in order to aerate the water. 
The raceway should be covered with gravel at all times ; 
for if the fish are not well, or are troubled with parasites, 
they resort to swift water and gravel bottoms 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 pressure 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, which 
should extend above the ground and be braced apart by 
ioists running across the pond a foot or more above water. 
Even these will spring in time if not quite stiff. Ponds 
well built require but little work to keep them in order— 
an occasional stopping of muskrat or of crawfish holes, 
and in the spring to repair damage from frost, if any, 
or to patch up a bank or wall. There are hard soils 
where neither wood nor stone are 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 valuable 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 king- 
fisher. 
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 obtained else- 
where, 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 swanpy 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 from 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 Irishman 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 hatchery 
made at the insistence of Commissioner Blackford, and 
I planned to put it as high as the inflow from the reser- 
voir would bear, as the water went from the hatchery 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 three feet above ground and the 
southeast was thirteen feet in the air. It looked queer, 
but the levels were correct. The foundation 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 surface 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 Commission 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 administration led to my discharge, and 
to-day a great unsightly ice-house stands in the center of 
what was to be my "park," and there is a stable where a 
"conservatory" for water plants and the breeding of fresh- 
water crustaceans and insects was planned ; and my 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. 
Drains. 
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 bm on the inner end With, a slid- 
ing 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 box-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 
and relaid them many times, cementing them most care- 
fully and then reinforced the joints with another coating 
of cement, but tree roots would force their way in some- 
how and either fill the pipe or break it. At Cold Spring 
Harbor, N. Y., I piped a spring from an upper level in 
six-inch tile pipe, and it. filled up 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 thirty-seven 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 knew how to 
get it, even where there was no leak. Here is a chance 
for a question about the habits of trees 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 we obtained another 
spring to bring down I bought four-inch iron "soil pipe," 
caulked the collars with oakum and then ran lead around 
on the oakum. After this the lead was caulked, 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 underground 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 roots 
might not extend fifty feet. 
It is said that iron filings mixed with cement will keep, 
roots from the joints of drain tile. Having no experience 
with this, it is mentioned without comment. 
Dams. 
These cannot be too carefully made to contend with 
pressure, leakage, muskrats, crawfish, frost and other 
things which are ever working to help 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 room- 
ing. The washout! which resulted from undermining by muskrats, 
entails heavy loss to mill owners 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 crawfish 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 
further 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 six inches square, the 
screen should be at the least calculation nineteen 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 six feet long by two feet wide and 
twenty inches deep, with a dam near the lower end about 
fifteen 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 upheaval by frost, in a 
climate where the brook trout love to dwell, is a more 
difficult matter ; but my own experience 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 aban- 
doned, 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 concerned, 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 dislike to work in either saw- 
dust 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 galvanized 
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, com- 
bined with the disposition of trout, in their younger days, 
to prefer any location, rather than that which we h,ave 
provided for them, renders the subject of screens and 
appliances for confining them a very important one to the 
fishculturist, and one liable to defeat all his calculations 
and waste all his time, labor and money, if not properly 
considered. I have kept sharks and whales in confine- 
ment, 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 ap- 
parently 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 very difficult in a pond, as a crack 
or worm hole in a board, or in the earth or masonry, 
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; arid this system has its advan- 
tages, which are security of confinement, compactness, 
the ease with which they can be inspected and the larger 
ones removed from their weaker brethren, and the pro- 
tection from bird, beast, reptile and insect enemies to 
which their relatives in the outdoor pond are exposed. 
To counterbalance these advantages, we have in the rear- 
ing 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 exposure of outdoor ponds and 
avoid their enemies, which decrease in numbers with in- 
creasing size. 
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 
empties into, and, although they may seek its depths for 
food in winter after running down off the spawning beds, 
the first hint of a rising temperature sends them back to 
the cooler spring waters. 
A good self-cleaning screen for large trout is a re- 
volving cylinder of wire cloth. Make disks of eighteen 
inches with four strips to stiffen the cylinder and cover 
this with No. 2 wire cloth. Run an axle through it and 
set it so that it will revolve in the current, with six 
inches of water to turn it; i. e.. set it in water to that 
depth. A half-inch below the cylinder set a board edge- 
wise under its center, and all leaves and fine trash will 
be passed without clogging. This can be made to fit a 
trough or box. A coarse screen should be placed in 
front of it to catch sticks. 
Fly-Casting at the New York Show- 
Tuesday, March 11— Bait-casting for distance. Judges, 
Willis D. Cloyes, C. R. Radcliffe, D. T, Abercrombie: 
C. D. Levison, 81 feet; E. J. Mills, 74 feet. 
Wednesday, March 12— Fly-casting for distance for 
girls: Miss Elizabeth Cruikshank, 68 feet. 
Thursday, March 13— Fly-casting for distance. Judges, 
E .S, Osgood, W. H. Houston, D. T. Abercrombie: P. 
C. Hewitt, 84 feet 6 inches; E. J. Mills, 71 feet 2 inches; 
Willis D. Cloyes, 53 feet ; E. R. Hewitt, withdrew. 
Friday, March 14— Judges, Dr. C. C. Curtis, J. E. Bull- 
winkle, C. R. Radcliffe: E. R. Hewitt, 61 feet; D. T. 
Abercrombie, 52 feet 6 inches; P. C. Hewitt, withdrew. 
Saturday, March 15 — Special, for accuracy. Judges, E 
S. Osgood, C. W. Ailing, H. Cadmus: D. T. Aber- 
crombie, 26; E. R. Hewitt, 26; V. D. Grimwood, 15; C. G. 
Levison, 13; M. H. Smith,, 5; P. C. Hewitt, withdrew. 
Monday, March 17— Obstacle. Judges, E. S. Osgood, 
Edw. Bourne, N. P. Howell: E. R. Hewitt, 72 feet 6 
inchs; Augustus B. Douglas, 61 feet 6 inches; H. Hen- 
derson, 60 feet; E. J. Mills, 55 feet; D. T. Abercrombie, 
53 feet. 
Tuesday, March .. 18 — Delicacy and accuracy : E. S. 
Osgood, 29; E. R. Hewitt, 20; P. Cooper Hewitt, D. T. 
Abercrombie, Harold Henderson, withdrew. 
Wednesday, March 10— Bass fly-casting: V. R. Grim- 
wood, 71 feet; Harold Henderson, 68 feet ; L. Tyson, 63 
feet. 
The bait casting competition was won by Mr. Levison 
with a total of 542 feet, and an average of 108 2-5 feet. 
In his third cast Mr. Levison made 125 feet, which we 
believe is the record for overhead casting. Of course 
much longer casts have been made by underhand cast- 
ing — 176 feet, we believe— but equally, of course, by that 
method accuracy is largely lost. 
The certificate given by Judge Franklin S. Beady is 
interesting by comparison with the record of the casting 
made in 1898, copy of which follows it: 
New York, March 20 — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
following is a true and correct copy of the score made 
by each contestant in the single-hand special bait-casting 
contest for distance with one-half ounce rubber frog at 
the tournament of the Sportsmen's Show, on the evening 
of March 19, 1002 : 
Edward J. Mills— Rod, 7 feet, 7 ounces, No. 3 Meek 
reel: 1st cast, 80 feet; 2d cast, nil.; 3d cast, 69 feet; 4th 
cast, nil. ; 5th cast. nil. 
C. G. Levison — Rod, 6 9-12 feet, 6 x />' ounces, Sage Ken- 
tucky reel : 1st cast, 97 feet ; 2d cast, 106 feet ; 3d cast, 
125 feet; 4th cast, 104 feet; 5th cast, 110 feet. Total, 542 
feet ; average. 108 2-5 feet. 
Milton H. Smith— Rod, 7 feet, 7 ounces, Sage Kentucky 
reel: ist cast, 74 feet; 2d cast, 70 feet; 3d cast, — ; 4th 
cast, 70 feet ; 5th cast, — . The 3d and 5th casts went out 
of bounds, and although they were about 90 feet each, they 
could not be counted. 
This contest being for distance, Mr. Levison was de- 
clared winner by making 125 feet on the third cast. 
Franklin S. Beady, Judge. 
Wednesday. Jan. 19. 1898, at 8 P. M.— Class K. Single- 
handed bait-casting contest. For distance and accuracy. 
Open to all. Five casts shall be made with half-ounce 
rubber frog, to be furnished by the committee. Free 
running reel to be used. No limit as to rod or line, but 
the line must not be leaded or weighted. For accuracy, 
five casts shall be made at a buoy placed 60 feet from 
the easting point Th,e cas^ to, he- made with t>*e haU- 
