314 
DOMESTIC FISH PONDS.-NO. 5 . 
produce fruit, there being frequently vestiges of in¬ 
complete or withered pistils in the centre. 
A pistillate or female flower will produce fruit if 
impregnated by the pollen of a neighboring stami- 
nate flower, but not otherwise , as the male organs 
are entirely absent, as in figure, c, or defective, as in 
b, where the filaments have no anthers on their ex¬ 
tremities, and therefore have no pollen to impreg¬ 
nate the pistils. 
Mr. Jackson’s exhibition of strawberries before 
the Horticultural Society of Cincinnati, mentioned 
on the first page of the American Agriculturist for 
July, induces me to write to you upon the same 
subject. 
When Mr. N. Longworth, a gentleman of accu¬ 
rate observation and sound judgment, directed the 
public attention to the sexual differences in straw¬ 
berry plants, some years ago, for the benefit of 
those who would make productive plantations of 
that delightful fruit, he was sneered at by those su¬ 
perficial botanists whose knowledge of the vegeta¬ 
ble kingdom was derived exclusively from books, 
and consisted of generalities ill applied, and not 
limited or enlarged by actual observation. The 
operations of nature, and the modifications of them, 
caused by climate, cultivation, and the amalgama¬ 
tion of species, were unknown to them. They had 
read that the genus Fragaria is an Icosandria of 
the Polygynia order, having a calyx and corolla 
surrounding its stamens and pistils, and therefore 
forming a perfect and complete flower, hermaphro¬ 
dite of course. All such could perfect their fruit 
without foreign aid, as in their estimation Mr. 
Longworth was an ignoramus. But he had seen, 
and examined, and cultivated, and eaten, as fine 
strawberries as ever grew. He had seen in the cul¬ 
tivated varieties some flowers with stamens and 
pistils, others with stamens only, never bearing 
fruit, and which never can till a man bears a child; 
and others with pistils only found to bear fruit, but 
as incapable of it without the fertilizing influence 
of the pollen from a staminate flower, as any other 
female in her virgin state. I do not know whether 
Mr. Longworth cared one straw for the Theory of 
Vegetable Transformation which originated with 
Linnaeus, but was almost entirely neglected till 
Goethe, the poet, naturalist, and philosopher, ex¬ 
plained the Metamorphoses of Plants in the year 
1790, in his “ Versuch fiber die Metamorphose 
der Pflanzen.” But Mr. Longworth saw with 
his own eyes the facts, and he is a practical man, 
who knows that 
“ Facts are things that dinna lie, 
And canna be disputed.” 
By the way, the latter proposition of this distich 
is not true. Facts are every day disputed. Mr. 
Longworth’s de jure and de facto facts have been 
disbelieved and disputed too, but only by those 
who have not observed. This spring I examined a 
number of blossoms of the strawberry plant, at the 
request of a gentleman in Frankfort, and veri¬ 
fied Mr. Longworth’s observations. I found all 
the three kinds of flowers in great abundance.. 
Whether all the flowers in their wild uncultivated 
state are complete hermaphrodite flowers or net, 1 
cannot say, but that in their cultivated state many of 
them cease to be so is certainly true ; and those who 
heed not Mr. Longworth’s advice in forming plan¬ 
tations, if they obtain fruit at all, will be indebted 
to chance for it, whereas, if they follow his advice, 
proper cultivation will insure good crops of fruit. 
The cultivator should select for planting the her¬ 
maphrodite and pistillate flowers, with only a few 
of the staminate flowers to fertilize those which are 
pistillate only, and these should be intermixed with 
the former. John Lewis. 
Llangollen, Ky , July 13, 1846. 
DOMESTIC FISH-PONDS.—No. 5. 
Management, fyc. —With proper management, in 
many cases, the fish will scarcely require feeding, 
as the pond itself will furnish food. But if the fish 
seem unhealthy, or appear to want food, they may 
be fed with earth-worms, grasshoppers, steeped 
grain, peas, offals of poultry, boiled potatoes, Indian 
meal, crumbs of bread, &c. The food should be 
given morning and evening at a stated time, and 
always at the same part of the pond. A portion of 
the margin of the pond may be covered with 
aquatic plants, on which vast numbers of insects, 
snails, &c , will be produced, which will serve as 
a delicious morsel for the fish. In Europe, there 
are two weeds in particular, which are encouraged 
to grow, namely, the broad-leaved pond weed 
(Potamogeton natans), sometimes also called tench 
weed, and the water crow-foot ( Ranunculus aqua- 
tilis); on both of these weeds carp and tench de¬ 
posit their spawn. In rainy seasons, it is desirable 
to allow the ponds to fill to their utmost limits, as 
by this method food is brought from the adjacent 
grounds; and when the water is let off again, a 
luxuriant and tender grass is produced at the bor¬ 
ders, peculiarly adapted for the food of carp. 
When the pond is too full, the water should be let 
off by the sluice into the second pond, and so on to 
the third, and then be suffered to run to waste. By 
this method, the water of all the ponds is freshened, 
and much food is secured by the fishes. 
Care must be taken in frosty weather to break 
the ice around the edge of the pond, or the fish 
will perish for the want of air; for, fishes cannot 
subsist, any more than terrestrial animals, without 
an absorption of oxygen. When the connection 
of the water with the external air is cut off by a 
solid crust of ice, it is highly probable that sooner 
or later the water will part with no more of its 
oxygen. This conclusion is drawn from the fact, 
that fishes in a bowl of water beneath an exhaust¬ 
ed receiver, soon die, although the water still con¬ 
tains much oxygen, or it would no longer be water, 
but hydrogen gas. To obviate this difficulty, it has 
been recommended to drive pipes of metal or wcod 
into the bottom of the ponds, with the upper end of 
each pipe rising above the water, and with one or 
more side openings to the tubes below the surface, 
in order to allow the air to pass down, and afford 
the fishes a fresh supply, while the rest of the sur¬ 
face is covered with ice. 
At certain seasons, the ponds are fished, by 
drawing off the greater part of the water and trans¬ 
ferring the best of the fish into small stew-ponds , 
situated in the garden or some other convenient 
place. These may be three in number, each about 
