216 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
The Pond-fish and Ruddy Bass. 
The beautiful Pond-fish is so common that al¬ 
most every country boy knows it as an old, 
familiar friend. "Who has not thrown crumbs 
to the “Sunfish” or “Pumpkin seeds,” from 
the bridge or bank, watched their graceful 
motions, and caught the reflections from their 
golden sides? Who has 
not taken them from the 
hook, pricked himself with 
their spiny fins, strung 
them on the white-birch 
twig, and wondered at the 
marvelous blending of red 
and olive, green and gold, 
on their broad, glistening 
sides ? Our engraving, from 
the photograph of a speci¬ 
men 8\| a inches long, gives 
a perfect idea of the side 
outline; viewed from 
above, the fish is long and 
narrow. Its colors are very 
brilliant, greenish olive up¬ 
on the back, becoming 
lighter upon the sides, 
where irregular small red 
and broader yellowish- 
brown spots occur. The 
opercles, or sides of the 
head, and gill covers, are 
bluish, with light spots, 
and on the end of the 
opercle near the pectoral 
fin is a large, soft prolongation of it of bril¬ 
liant colors; it is black, edged with intense 
scarlet. This fish is of little value as food, be¬ 
cause it is generally so small and bony. Yet, 
whatever the size, it is eaten with relish, fried 
and well browned. The larger * specimens are 
frequently found in market and are much 
esteemed. The Pondfish abounds in all parts 
of the country north of the Carolinas and east 
of the Mississippi, probably exceeding these 
limits, and is one of the most attractive fish 
gentlemen can have in their ornamental ponds 
and brooks. It makes 
a nest in clear, shal¬ 
low water, near shore, 
excavating the gravel 
4 to 6 inches deep in 
the middle, for a space 
2 feet in diameter. 
Here it lays its eggs 
and watches them day 
and night for weeks, 
fighting off intruders. 
The Ruddy Bass 
oh White Perch.— 
(Labrax rufus.) —Un¬ 
der the name of White 
Perch two quite dis¬ 
tinct fish are popular¬ 
ly known. They vary, 
however,considerably 
in size and in other 
points. The one, an 
engraving of which, 
about half the natu¬ 
ral size, we present, 
is the larger and better fish, as it frequently 
exceeds 9 or 10 inches in length. The color is 
bluish above with a pale reddish hue extending 
over the sides, changing to pale orange on the 
belly. The head has metallic reflections, and the 
pectoral and ventral fins are reddish. This is a 
common fish in those streams and waters which 
communicate directly with the sea along the 
Atlantic coast, and where the water is brackish, 
and, at least occasionally, salt. It is, we believe, 
never found at a distance from brackish water. 
Though clearly a bass, its general form associates 
it with the perch, and hence the common name. 
It is taken abundantly in the vicinity of New 
York and found in the markets during the win¬ 
ter and spring, and is esteemed as a pan fish. 
the pondfish or sunfish— (Pomotis vulgaris.) 
Green Fodder for Dry Weather. 
On a large number of farms which have con¬ 
nected with them mountain lands, outlying 
pastures, or any fields to which labor cannot 
be profitably applied, the only economical way 
to make use of a very large amount of valua¬ 
ble food is to feed it off by pasturing animals; 
but unless the amount of pasture land is so 
great in proportion to the number of animals to 
be kept, that, during the season of luxuriant 
growth, more food is produced than can be 
ruddy bass or white perch—( Labrax rufus.) 
consumed, it will always be profitable to raise a 
greater or less breadth of some succulent green 
crop, with which to eke out the precarious sub¬ 
sistence afforded by parched pasture fields. 
Throughout the whole region where Indian 
corn grows, this affords the most abundant and 
cheapest green fodder for use during the later 
months of summer and the autumn. And 
every farmer whose pastures are liable to be¬ 
come pinched under the heat of the August 
sun should sow early in the season, and at suc¬ 
cessive intervals of two or three weeks, until 
the first of July, such a breadth of some large- 
growing variety of corn as -will ensure the need¬ 
ed supply to keep his stock always amply fed. 
On well-arranged dairy farms, where animals 
are pastured sufficiently 
near to the buildings to be 
driven in at night, it will 
be well to give a good feed 
of cut fodder every even¬ 
ing, and in some cases in 
the morning as well, turn¬ 
ing out to pasture during 
the day. Indeed, so uni¬ 
versal is this practice be¬ 
coming in our best dairy 
districts, that it is hardly 
necessary to say a word in 
favor of its adoption. If 
Indian corn alone is de¬ 
pended on for this purpose, 
the seed should be procur¬ 
ed from a more Southern 
locality, as such corn is 
more luxuriant in its 
growth of stalk and leaf 
than is that of any North¬ 
ern region. Some good 
farmers in New England 
procure seed corn for soil¬ 
ing use from Missouri, and 
believe that the production 
of fodder from it is nearly twice as great as 
would be that of any variety of which the seed 
could be perfectly ripened in their locality. 
Sweet corn is more valuable, weight for weight, 
than any other, but the seed is so expensive and 
so uncertain in its germination, while the 
amount of stalk and leaf produced is less, that 
the profit of using it for soiling purposes is 
questionable. Hungarian millet and other 
plants seem to be excellent for soiling purposes; 
but they are much less known, and it is by no 
means safe, as yet. to recommend them as bet¬ 
ter than our native 
Indian corn, with the 
cultivation and care 
of W'hich all are fa¬ 
miliar. In the system 
of partial soiling, val¬ 
uable assistance may 
also be obtained from 
the use of winter rye, 
which makes a luxu¬ 
riant growth very ear¬ 
ly in the spring, long 
before grass is fit for 
feeding, and which 
may be cut in its ear¬ 
ly stages of growth 
without detriment to 
its production of 
grain; though, after 
the production of the 
seed stalk has com¬ 
menced, cutting is in¬ 
jurious. Even after 
this time, however, a 
valuable amount of green forage will be pro¬ 
duced for use later in the season. 
-«•-. - —>©*- --- —- 
The First Milk of a cow’after calving is 
purgative, and might have a bad effect on hogs, 
but we should think it could not be dangerous 
unless fed regularly day after day. It is used as 
human food in Europe without evil effects 
