10 
SOUTHEEN CULTIVATOR. 
jananure or straw, in the bottoms of deep trenches, three 
feet apart. Put a handful of manure on each set, and 
eover it with five or six inches of earth. Haul the earth 
well about the stems as they advance in growth, but do 
»ot cover the tops with dirt 
Prepare all your garden implements for use, this month ; 
and get your ground spaded or plowed thoroughly, turn- 
ing deeply under all the manure or vegetable matter that 
you can obtain. 
Hot Beds should be prepared the latter part of this 
month, in order that you may have a good supply of Cu- 
eumbers, Cabbage, Tomato and other plants for spring 
operations. 
THE OSCHAKD. 
Plant out, immediately, all the finest varieties of Apples, 
Pears, Peaches, Plums, Apricots, Necto^nnes, Quinces, 
Pomegranates, Figs, Grapes, &c., giving the preference, 
in all cases, to trees and vines raised in the Smdh. (See 
directions for planting trees in our December number.) 
Strawberry Beds may be planted any time before March, 
but the sooner the bettter. (See directions in November 
number, 1855.) 
Orchards that have been allowed to grow up in grass 
and broomsedge during the fall and summer, should 
be cross plowed between the rows, leaving a space as far 
as the branches extend to be stirred up with the grubbing 
boe. Be careful not to injure the roots by this working 
— dig in some well rotted manure, (muck, lime and ashes) 
— cut away all suckers, and leave a space around the 
tree open and mellow. As soon as warm weather ap- 
proaches, this space may be mulched with saw-dust, pine 
straw, forest leaves, long manure, or any substance that 
will retain moisture. 
^laEtatinu dDCOEora^ anlt Miscellany. 
A CHAPTEE ON FISH— FISK PONDS AND AETI- 
FICIAL FISH BEEEDING. 
BT REV. JOHN BACHMAN, D. D., OF CHARLESTON. 
Read before the Sfade Agricultural Society of South Caro- 
lina, at Columbia, 1855. 
[ Concluded from Decembev number, page 362. j 
Editors Southern Cultivator — One of our most suc- 
cessful experiments in stocking a fish pond was the re- 
sult of what we at first regarded as an unfortunate acci- 
dent. Our caterer at the river, who was a fisherman on 
a humble scale, sent word to us that he had, in one night, 
obtained a dozen specimens of a fish we had long been 
anxious to procure. It was known by the name of “Cor- 
poral.” We immediately dispatched our faithful servant 
to bring the treasures home. After an absence of half a 
day, he returned with a rueful face, evidencing great dis- 
appointment and mortification. An unlucky drive over a 
flump had overturned and broken his wagon and rolled 
•ff his hogshead with all its precious contents. He had 
xaplaced the fish— but they had all been dead several 
hoiuf. We ascertained that several of the females had 
been ready to spawn and found a number of eggs in the 
water, which was white with the milk of the male. The 
thought occurred to us, that as we had just succeeded by 
the aid of a common hen, in hatching the eggs of the 
Ruffed Grouse, (although we did not finally succeed in 
rearing the young) there was no impossibility in hatch- 
ing these fish eggs. We, consequently, made use of an 
old trough of some five or six feet in length and ten or 
twelve inches in depth, nailed narrow strips of shingles at 
each end, to prevent other fishes from devouring the eggs — 
cut open the membranous sacks of both sexes,and deposited 
the spawn in our rude artificial hatching trough, on a 
quantity of gravel with which we had previously lined 
the bottom. This was carried to the running stream that 
supplied the pond. The water in the trough was about 4 
inches deep, running, not very rapidly, but in a continu- 
ed stream. We confess we were not without some hope 
of success. In about six weeks we were gratified on find- 
ing our trough swarming with the young brood that were, 
during a period of ten days, issuing from the coarse gravel'^ 
We made no estimate of the number, but they could not 
have been less than five or six thousand. V/e concluded 
to preserve them from the other fish that were devouring 
each other in the pond. They were, when a few weeks 
old, fed on boiled corn meal, which they seemed to prefer to 
any other food. It was placed in lumps in various parts 
of the trough. They grew very rapidly. When they began 
to crowd each other, we removed them to a small artificial 
pond of about ten feet in diameter. They had never evi- 
denced the slightest symptoms of shyness, and they and 
their descendants, for twenty years afterwards, greedily 
took their food from the hand. When the ice began to 
form in the beginning of winter, the temporary bank which 
had separated them from the open waters of the pond was 
removed and they were suffered to swim at large. They 
were now from three to five inches in length. They left 
their summer retreat with great reluctance, and it was 
only by tempting them with crumbs of bread thrown on 
the surface of the water that they could be weaned away 
to the common feeding ground at the outlet of the pond. 
This and the common Northern Pickerel, which we in- 
troduced the following year, were the only two species 
that continued active under the ice and came up to be fed 
in winter, and furnished an occasional mess for the table. 
As we possessed an abundance of the Corporal, we com- 
menced eating it during the first winter and found it aa 
excellent pan fish. DeKay (Nat. Hist. N. Y. Fishes, p. 
213) speaks of its flesh as “eatable, but rather soft and 
coarse,” and gives the length 13 inches. He admits, 
however, that it had not been “his good fortune to meet 
this species.” We can only add to this, that those we fed 
in our pond were always fat and well flavored during the 
cold months of the year, and several of them on the second 
winter, when 18 months old, had attained 17 inches in 
length and weighed three pounds. It is the Corporal of 
DeKay and the beautiful Leuciscus of Storer — (Storer’s 
Synopsis, p. 160.) We have no space to describe it, but 
conceive it fully entitled to its specific appellation. 
Anxious to ascertain the success which had attended our 
