100 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
nothing more with them. When the crop was 
ripe I raked off the straw, and raked out the 
potatoes, which were mostly on the surface, 
looking very nice, fresh, and large. The in¬ 
sult was, I had at the rate of 18G bushels per 
( acre; while the yield from those planted the old 
■1 way in drills, and cultivated, on ground hy the 
side of them, was only 75 bushels per acre, 
' which was rather small for this section, owing 
to the dry season. The soil is a sandy loam.” 
UTi < i iTH ftp pun » p - - 
■ The Common Pickerel. — {Esox reticulatus.) 
Our artist, Mr. Herrick, challenges admiration 
for the faithfulness and beauty of his drawing, 
which has lost nothing in the engraver’s hands. 
It is indeed a difficult task to engrave so delicate 
a piece of penciling, and retain the indications of 
shade off into nearly pure white upon the belly. 
The scales are small, brilliant, and edged with 
black, the fins greenish, those below being ting¬ 
ed with red. The body is covered with dusky 
reticulations, or irregular bands running one 
into another, forming a sort of network, 
which vary in size in different specimens. The 
pike breeds in March or April, as soon as the 
water becomes a little warm and food abundant, 
and during the breeding period the colors are 
exceedingly intense and brilliant. In addition to 
the tints named there is an iridescence of bril¬ 
liant hues upon the gills and sides. The light 
parts are brighter and the dark ones of deeper 
color; hence we regard the pickerel, especially 
the male, as deserving to be ranked among 
the most beautiful of our fresh water fish. 
The motions of this fish in the water are 
great, he usually makes several “ tacks,” taking 
a zigzag course. The accuracy of aim of the 
fish in making these darts is truly astonishing. 
Few indeed are the fish that can escape. The 
enormous jaws open and shut like a steel trap, 
at the moment of striking, and the luckless 
creature is engulfed in the capacious maw. 
The pike does not hesitate, however, if the fish 
he pounces upon is too large for a single swal¬ 
low. He will, if pressed with hunger, take one 
nearly half as long as himself; if necessary, 
first disabling it, and then getting it head fore¬ 
most into his mouth. After this, little by little, 
he works it down. Meanwhile he himself be¬ 
comes almost helpless, as one might imagine,— 
having a living fish, half swallowed, and active¬ 
ly wriggling in his mouth—and in this condition 
small pickerel not unfrequently fall an easy 
the common pickerel ,—(Esox reticulatus.)—Drawn and Engravedfor the American Agriculturist. 
t the play of colors upon the surface without los¬ 
ing the strength of the more positive markings, 
j The pickerel or pike is one of our best known 
j fishes. It is a favorite in the market, and with 
j many, of course, upon the table ; a favorite, too, 
j with those anglers who are not such thorough 
' sportsmen that they will not favor a fish so 
easily captured. The pickerel are among the 
most voraciously carnivorous animals in the 
world, and being also among the strongest and 
swiftest swimmers, the weaker fish about them 
must be both cautious and active to be able to 
both pick up a living and elude their jaws. 
The body of the pickerel is long and slender, 
and the head is very nearly one-third of the en¬ 
tire length. It approaches a cylindrical form, 
the breadth and depth being much more nearly 
alike than in most fishes. The head is broad; 
the snout, blunt and flat, somewhat like a duck’s 
bill; the under jaw extends beyond the upper 
one when the mouth is closed. The upper jaw 
has no teeth upon the sides and only a few 
small ones in front, but the 
roof of the mouth and the 
under jaw fairly bristle with 
teeth, some of which are 
quite large. The base of the 
tongue and the bony arches 
which support the gills are 
covered with sharp teeth di- 
’ rected backward, so that 
l anything once within is ex- 
! tricated with difficulty. The 
' colors vary considerably, ac¬ 
cording to the abundance 
and kind of food, the char¬ 
acter of the water, or other 
influences, and also accord¬ 
ing to the sex and time of year. The prev¬ 
alent colors are deep green, or bluish-gray 
approaching black on the back and head, while 
olive-yellow and golden tints mingle with the 
greenish or grayish reticulations of the sides,, and 
peculiar. The shape of the body and location 
of its fins are such as to give it great speed in 
straight forward motion, and power to stop or 
turn on the instant. It has, however, no ability 
to execute those graceful sweeps and curves 
which make some of the carp family such 
attractive denizens of ornamental ponds, basins 
or vases, where their motions can be watched. 
The pickerel habitually rests perfectly motion¬ 
less, not a quiver or wave of a fin being visible, 
except a slight undulating motion of the pec¬ 
toral or breast fins by which he balances liim- 
IIEAD 0E PICKEREL. 1 
self; then in the twinkling of an eye he shoots 
away with almost inconceivable rapidity—so 
great that the eye can hardly follow him—and 
stops stock still perhaps at the distance of only 
a few feet, or it may be, rods. If the distance be 
prey to larger ones. The writer once took a 
large pike from the hook, having in his mouth 
a small one which had previously partly swal¬ 
lowed the live bait fish, and found all three alive. 
The pickerel will take almost anything that 
is small enough for him to get into his mouth, 
if it lias motion resembling life; hence bits of 
rags, bone, or painted tin, are used for bait, 
being “ trolled ” or drawn rapidly through the 
water. Living fish as long as one’s finger are 
common bait for set lines, and such are fre. 
quently used through holes in the ice. The fish 
spear is often successfully employed in taking 
pickerel of large size. Strong as he is, the 
pickerel does not make a hard fight when hook, 
ed, and he is so greedy and easily taken that 
he can never rank high as a game fish. Tha 
flesh is good, but does not compare in excel¬ 
lence with that of the trout, black bass, or perch. 
Pickerel are found in most of our streams and 
rivers away from the influence of the sea, but 
are most abundant in ^ionds, where they may 
often be seen in summer, 
Dasking in the sun among 
the lily pads. The pickerel 
varies in length, mature 
specimens being often less 
than a foot in length, and 
sometimes reaching the 
enormous size of three feet. 
The bodies of these very 
large ones are usually much 
more robust than others. 
The engraving which we 
present is an accurate por¬ 
trait of a fine large fish, 
taken by the artist himself. 
Its extreme length was 25 
inches. The head was accurately drawn from 
a 4 j | 4 pound fish taken from the market, and is 
represented two-thirds the natural length. Many 
of the smaller teeth in the lower jaw are not 
fixed, but seem to be set loosely in the flesh. 
