Lodes of Goldfish and 
Exotic Water Plants 
Less than ten miles south of Fred- 
erick, Maryland, is a vast area of torn 
earth, spotted with hundreds of shal- 
low ponds and interlaced with miles 
of bare clay banks. 
As the motorist enters the area, on 
a good road, his first impression is 
that of visiting a valley in which a 
rich lode of gold has just been struck. 
In a manner of speaking, gold has 
been struck in the area, for this rough 
setting is the site of the Three Springs 
Fisheries, the world’s largest center 
for goldfish and exotic water plants. 
No one motorist has yet seen all 
there is to see at Lilypons, the com- 
munity into which ‘‘Bloom Town” has 
developed, because the installation 
covers 1800 acres. More than 700 
ponds are plotted into this acreage. 
From the inception of this ‘gold 
strike” more than 30 years ago, how- 
ever, procedure has been reversed a 
bit. Principally this reversed order 
has called for the pouring of gold into 
the place instead of taking it out. 
The bottom of every pond, for ex- 
ample, is ribbed with a network of 
pipelines, valves and other controls. 
These enable research and production 
workers at the fisheries to drain, re- 
fill and isolate any pond at will for 
carefully controlled cultivation of fish 
and water plants, and for the study 
of experimental strains, foods, disease 
control and the like. 
It required many years of invest- 
ment for the fisheries to attain their 
There’s Gold in These Hills: 
present million-dollar installation and 
world-wide reputation. Currently the 
fisheries ship out some 80,000,000 fish 
and hundreds of thousands of aquatic 
plants annually. 
During this development period 
every addition to the estate has been 
made with an eye to preserving as 
much natural beauty as_ possible. 
Thus far the program has succeeded. 
Strolling visitors still can choose 
practically any path winding through 
the area and enjoy a series of thrilling 
surprises along the way. 
The climbing of almost any dike 
will reward the visitor with a breath- 
taking view of hundreds of lotus flow- 
ers or water lilies—pinks, reds, whites, 
yellows, changeable combinations—all 
of a beauty that can never be pos- 
sessed by man, but only borrowed for 
the life span of his flowers. 
Three Springs Fisheries, Lilypons, Maryland 
