FOREST AND STREAM 
351 
and there is more or less official information on 
the subject. It is not necessary at present to 
give instances where success has been achieved; 
my object, as already stated, is to keep before 
the public the fact that success in private fish 
culture is possible and that considerable fish food 
may be produced with the same amount of labor 
and intelligent effort that is necessary for the 
raising of fowls. There has been much agitation 
over the high cost of living, and it is time to 
consider what the individual citizen can do in 
the way of assisting in the production of fish 
food. 
In some of the countries of central Europe the 
cultivation of fishes in private waters has been 
going on for centuries. In Austria and Ger¬ 
many fish farming, as it is often called, is a 
common industry. While it is much practiced 
by small land owners, there are many large es¬ 
tates which maintain hundreds of ponds in ac¬ 
tive cultivation. Much of this private fish cul¬ 
ture is based on the various forms of the carp, 
but other European fishes are also cultivated 
for sale, such as the tench, ide, rudd, bream 
perch and pike. Some European fish culturists 
are now raising American basses and perches. 
There are many villages in Austria where fish 
ponds are maintained at the expense of the c'om- 
munity. In view of these facts, it is remarkable 
that immigrants from Europe have neglected to 
practice their ancient art in pond culture in this 
country. 
Aside from commercial trout raising, which is 
practiced to a limited extent, we have nothing 
of such pond culture in America. Our numer¬ 
ous fish hatcheries maintained under the direc¬ 
tion of state commissions are devoted almost 
entirely to the stocking of public waters with 
young fishes. Very little of the product is 
reared to maturity and none of it is sent to 
market direct. If our fish culturists could be 
commanded to bring their annual yield of fry 
to maturity and deliver it to the market, they 
would be at a loss how to proceed. We are 
really not fish raisers, but producers of fry. At 
that stage our efforts cease. The rest is left 
to nature, and negligently cast into waters that 
we imperfectly protect and utterly neglect to 
keep pure. While our achievements in public 
fish hatching are notable, private fish culture has 
made no headway. A few of our state fish 
commissioners are making efforts in pond culture 
for the benefit of farming communities, notably 
in Kansas, and it will be interesting to observe 
what progress can be made. Perhaps the vast 
natural yield from our coast, lake and river fish¬ 
eries is responsible for the lack of private effort. 
Our fish supply, in general, is large and well 
distributed, but we could consume a much 
greater supply, especially in view of the fact 
that in some sections the natural supply is be¬ 
ing depleted by over fishing and pollution of 
waters. There are many sections of the coun- 
try inadequately supplied with fish food which 
could be produced locally by pond cultivation and 
such supplies would find convenient home markets. 
It is possible for the private citizen to obtain 
pond fishes for breeding purposes, but he needs 
assistance and direction. Object lessons on ap¬ 
proved methods of fish culture could be ob¬ 
tained by visiting public hatcheries, but this is 
not likely to be undertaken. It would be ad¬ 
vantageous to the country if state fish commis¬ 
sions generally could supply the coarser fishes 
for cultivation in private waters and furnish the 
public free information as to the methods to be 
followed. 
We should not rest content with the mere 
fact that such information exists in public doc¬ 
uments. The edition of state documents are 
neither large nor well distributed, and rural 
populations may remain unaware that useful 
fishery information may be had for the asking. 
State .fish commissions should not only prepare 
inexpensive pamphlets on the cultivation of 
common fishes, but see that they reach many 
communities and be announced and reviewed by 
the rural press everywhere. Model ponds dis¬ 
tributed about the state for demonstrative work 
would, of course, be educational, like agricul¬ 
tural colleges and state experiment farms. I am 
not prepared to set forth the best means of do¬ 
ing this work, perhaps no two states would 
undertake it the same way. 
I am convinced that some of the energy put 
into the production of fry is misdirected. The 
output is amazing. Practically all of it is hur¬ 
ried into the nearest river and none of it raised. 
We are all doing about the same thing and have 
settled into the rut of fish hatching in hatchery 
buildings. No one is doing anything new except 
as connected with the competition for increased 
output. 
Having practiced these wholesale methods for 
two or three decades, let us now consider 
whether we might not profit by a little less fish 
hatching and a little more fish raising. Does 
salvation lie only in a multiplicity of expensive 
Federal and state hatcheries? If our fishery 
establishments were equipped to raise and market 
one per cent, of the fry now being hatched and 
liberated, might not the quantity of food thus 
produced exceed that which eventually reaches 
market by way of the public waters? Let us 
simplify our art and teach it to the people, for 
they can surely help in the production of fish 
food. 
The Fighting Qualities of the Hawaiian Game Fish 
One perfect day in March last—such as is 
known only in Hawaii—four members of the 
Hawaii Tuna Club, E. H. Paris, Gerrit P. 
Wilder, the President of the Club, George 
Gooke and Theodore Cooke, decided, after busi¬ 
ness hours, to put in a couple of hours at their 
favorite sport with rod and reel off the Hono¬ 
lulu harbor. A mile offshore the green and 
opalescent shadings of the shallow waters of the 
bay change abruptly to the deep blues of the 
fifty fathom line. With a hundred feet of 
cuttyhunk trolling along in the wake of the slow¬ 
ly moving launch, and the rays of the setting 
sun adding to the revel of tropical color along 
the shore, there was no place for thoughts of 
war and turmoil in the minds of these anglers. 
In these same waters, where they were again to 
try their luck, many a hard tussle had been had 
with the dolphin, albacore, bonito, barracuda 
and ulua. 
As all game fishermen with rod and reel know, 
the unexpected happens with a startling sudden¬ 
ness. No sooner had the party settled down to 
business, when the reel of Paris’ rod began to 
screech and hundreds of feet of line were fast 
disappearing over the side of the boat. With rod 
bending double, he succeeded in stopping the line 
at five hundred feet. The well hooked fish made 
a leap in the air and then doubled back toward 
the launch. Reeling desperately to get in the 
slack, Paris brought the fish within a hundred 
feet of the boat; here it plunged into the blue 
sea. It rose to the surface again some three 
hundred feet out, and again made for the launch. 
It doubled and plunged and rose clear of the 
water repeatedly, and it was fully thirty minutes 
before the game monster was brought alongside 
the boat. Here the fish thrashed the water into 
a spume and made frantic rushes to free itself 
from the hook. After it was gaffed and hauled 
on board, the fish showed more gameness, and 
before it was quieted down, it had turned the deck 
into a shambles. Paris, the hero of the the oc¬ 
casion, was exhausted. 
The fish belongs to the genus Acanthocybium 
Gill, and is a remarkable one, marking a long 
step from Scomberomorus toward the type of 
swordfishes. It is a very large mackerel-like 
fish, widely distributed and especially abundant 
about the Florida Straits. The game fighter 
which Paris hooked was the Acanthocybium so- 
landri, of a steel-blue color, with fins like the 
body. It is known by the Hawaiian name Ono, 
and which was said by the ancient Hawaiians to 
be the parent of the Opelu (mackerel). The 
fish was over 50 inches in length and was caught 
with the regulation light tackle. Many similar 
species have been brought to the markets at Hon¬ 
olulu and Lahaina by the Japanese, being caught 
trolling from their motor sampans, but this was 
the first occasion the Ono had been landed with 
rod and reel. The bait used was the brown 
tail feathers of a domestic fowl, with a tarpon 
hook. H. GOODING FIELD, 
Secretary, Hawaii Tuna Club, Honolulu, Terri¬ 
tory of Hawaii. 
A READER FOR 42 YEARS. 
Covina, Cal., April 22, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Having been one of your oldest subscribers, a 
personal friend of Emerson Hough, Mr. Waters, 
Mr. Colville and other old-timers of the Forest 
and Stream, I want to congratulate you on the 
change of form. I kept Forest and Stream in 
bound form, from Vol. 1, No. 1, for twenty 
years, and on moving to California gave them to 
a friend, E. H. LAHEE, 
President, Covina Public Library. 
ACTUALLY TELLS A MAN SOMETHING. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I think your paper is fine. I like the things 
that actually tell a man something, and not a 
lot of tommyrot, or a bunch of cheap stories not 
worth anyone’s time to read. I consider Forest 
and Stream a high class magazine, and do not 
want to be without it; but I also liked it four 
times a month and did not even think of dis¬ 
continuing it on account of that. Wishing you 
success, I am, M. E. WISE. 
