12 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
formed that our present experiment had proved a failure. 
The winter came with its snows, forming ice in our pond 
two and a half teet thick; but our cold trout stream was 
scarcely ever frozen over to the thickness of half an inch. 
On the following April, however, we received the agreeable 
intelligence that many hundreds of our yonng Trout had 
made their appearance and were swarming in every trout 
hole in the stream. We had a trout breakfast from our 
brook, greeting us on the day of our return on the follow- 
ing autumn. The fish were not large, but, for their age, 
well grown and delicious. Our success was complete and 
we were for many years supplied with the largest kinds 
of Trout of the species, from this small stream. They were 
iK)t fed very regularly except when we were at home, but 
the borders of the stream were carpeted with grasses, and 
shaded by overhanging willows. The soil was full of 
worms ; grass-hoppers, and catterpillers were abundant in 
summer and they took no food in winter when they were 
hidden in the deep holes under the banks. They greedily 
devoured any kind of boiled meat, hominy or potatoes con- 
taining the smallest particle of grease, which was usually 
the refuse from the table. Occasionally they seized the 
finger of the feeder, mistaking it for less forbidden food. 
The only fish we introduced into this stream was the 
brook Minnow (^Leuciscus atrathasns), a small species of 
2 «r 3 inches long, which has also the only species found 
in the trout streams in the vicinity. Even these we re- 
moved on the following year, having ascertained that they 
revelled in the abundance of the trout spawn. A voraci- 
ous Pickerel had found his way from the pond into our 
Trout Brook, and began to play havoc with the Trout. 
His impudence brought him to the frying-pan, and the 
mouth of the stream was immediately secured by a grat- 
ing- 
Speaking of the Pickerel {Esox reticidatus), reminds us 
of the trials we had with that voracious, blood-thirsty 
Pike. We had some difficulty in procuring a dozen after 
several days fishing at the Hoosack Fall, where they were 
taken with a hook baited with live fish. — one of these 
Pike measured 2 feet 3 inches and was regarded as of the 
largest among the species. They multiplied rapidly in 
the pond, but they diminished in a much greater propor- 
tion, the other and more harmless fishes. The Pickerel 
does not deposit its spawn in a bed, like our Perch, but 
lays it among weeds in the month of April. 
We had a kind of aquatic dining table prepared for the 
feeding of our fishes. It was made the length and breadth 
of a Northern pine broard, 14 feet. It was under the 
water, but within 3 or 4 inches of the surface at the 
bank and gradually sloped into deeper water. At the 
ringing of a bell the surface of the water became at once 
agitated and the fish came from all quarters to be fed. 
They jostled each other with their noses like pigs at a 
trough, bristled up their dorsal fins and slapped each 
other with their tails, fighting for choice pieces. Neither 
the sucker or the half nocturnal cat-fish or eels obeyed our 
call. Two quarts of boiled corn meal was the usual mess : 
all refuse pieces of meat were boiled and thrown on their 
feeding grounds. We could have had a meal of fish every 
day in the year without a diminution of our stock, besides 
very frequently supplying our neighbors. When we 
wished to have a meal of fish a net of .5 feet square dis- 
tended by hoops with a pole attached was sunk flat on 
the boards of the feeding ground. The fishes were fed on 
and became accustomed to the net. It was suddenly 
hoisted by the strong pole ; those that we desired were 
selected and the remainder returned to the water. But the 
Pickerel came, not to eat our hominy, but to seize on the 
fish and secure a meal a la mode Esox. He made the 
scales fly from the largest fish of other species and the 
approach of a large Pike generally cleared the platform. 
It was a well flavored fish, although we did not regard it as 
superior to tJie Yellow Perch. We did not allow it grow 
much beyond a foot in length, which it reached at two 
years old, and selected it for the table, because we desired 
to diminish its numbers. An old Pike, however, with 
his wide jaws and formidable rows of canines, is like a 
lion among the antelopes — a wolf among the sheep— a 
hawk among the pigeons and patridges — a shark among 
the mackerel, or a porpoise among a shoal of mullets. 
Yakrell, in his History of Fishes (vol. 1st., p. 383-7) 
gives some amusing anecdotes of the voracity of the Euro- 
pean Pike— a larger species. An instance is mentioned 
where a Pike had battled with an Otter for the possessiorv 
of a Carp. “ A Pike seized the head of a Swan as she 
was feeding under water and gorged so much of it as 
killed them both.” “ Gesner relates that a Pike in the 
Rhone seized on tlte lips of a mule that was brought U> 
water, and that the beast drew the fish out before it c^ld 
disengage itself.” 
In the construction of fish ponds and the rearing of fish 
for table use, the South possesses many advantages above 
most portions of the Northern States. We are exempt 
from those terrible frosts which generally convert the 
pond into a solid mass of ice — often raising the bank and 
letting the water escape — sometimes freezing to the bottmn 
and always requiring large holes to be cut in the ice to 
preserve several species of fish from suffocation. We have, 
on the whole, finer native fishes with which our ponds 
could be stocked, and we have a more favorable climate 
for the Carp and the Tench, which we recommend as de- 
serving to be imported from abroad. 
After visiting many of the fish ponds of Europe, we 
were made sensible of many errors we had committed, 
not only in the construction of our pond,butin the selection 
of stock for the breeding of fishes. Great Britain, al- 
though surrounded by the ocean, and having, therefore, 
an easy access to the salt water fishes, is, notwithstanding, 
supplied with a number of ornamental and profitable fish 
ponds. France and Germany, however, whose interior 
population is farther removed from seas and large rivers, 
have been driven by a kind of necessity to rear their own 
fishes. 3 he inhabitants of several of these kingdoms, viz : 
Austria, Bavaria and France, are, by one of the rites of 
their church, restricted to a fish diet one day in the week. 
An acre of water, there, pays as high a rent as an acre of 
arable land. Fishes are reared as a profitable business, 
and are brought alive to the markets, where they are pre- 
served in tanks until they are sold. The fishes we met 
with in the markets were, in nearly every case, the com- 
mon Carp {Cyp'rhius carpio) ; the Tench ( Tiiica vulgar- 
is); the Prussian Carp gibelio). The. advan- 
tages of their ponds over ours were : 
tst.. Their waters were divided into several ponds. 
2nd. Their highly carnivorous fishes were always kept 
in separate ponds. 
3rd. They selected the fishes best adapted to pond 
breeding. 
4th. Their fishes that were to be sold were, for a time, 
kept in a small enclosure, (a fattening coop it might be 
termed) and there regularly fed. A fat fish is as superior 
to a lean one, as a fat duck is to a stringy pine-land puddle 
duck. Feeding on the same food, however, will not make 
the different species taste alike. The peculiar flavor of 
each is organic or constitutional. We may feed the Tur- 
key, Guinea and common fowl on the same food, their 
flavor, however, will always continue different. 
Our readers will, we trust, require very littte farther 
instruction in regard to the manner of supplying a fish 
pond, and no farther than the enumeration of the names of 
the species of fish to be introduced with a prospect of suc- 
cess. 
We have only space to give the following brief instruc- 
tions: 
I . Tii^e to supply the Pend amd the size of the lat- 
t 
