Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-08-26
at|isfellameuns &eaaing.
FISH CULTURE.

This literary venture, besides despoiling me
of what little reputation for veracity two
years career as an editor had left me, over.
whelmed me with letters asking my views
about building and stocking fish ponds !
very much fear that the vein of preternatural
wisdom that injected into that wild idyl, Sc
duced my correspondents into taking the ad-
vice 1 forwarded them. Ifso, 1 am probably
responsible for more incoherent gashes in the
ground-for more misplaced dams-for more
unavailable sheets of water-and for miserable
fishes placed under remarkable circumstances
and expected to be impossible things-than
any man in sacred or profane history.
TACKLING THE SUBJECT.
Under these circumstances | wonder at my
hardihood in again, to vary the phrase OF the
gifted Wegg, dropping into fish stories.
Being brought to Montgomery, however
on business, a friend whose festive proclivities
might appear rotous, if were to put them
into print, persuaded me into running over
to Penn Yonges." 1 went, and here am
with as wonderful story at the end of my
pencil as the best of US could wish for. I have
respect for a sensible fish. Your crafty
scoundrel who hangs around your baited hook,
and beguiles you with false promises until
your extremities are mildewed, until the grass
has grown rank between your legs, and the
gnats have frescoed every inch Of your face,
is fish that deserves the contempt of all an.
glers. The sneaking thief that with dexte,
rous lips steals your bait, and leaves you in
the ridiculous position of appealing with a
bare hook to the intelligence of the river, is a
"scaly" fellow, who has my hatred while he
counsels my admiration. But your true,
blind hero, that darts at the bait the moment
it touches the water, swallows it frankly, and
leaps shuddery, but prompt, from his element
to yours, is my delight Col. Yonge's fish are
positively the most gentlemanly fish that |
ever saw. For ten minutes I stood like a
wild man, finging the splendid fellows to
grass at the rate of FIVE a minute, while a
nimble slave impaled for me hewriggling bait,
and spat the luck-giving spittle upon my
hook.
SEVEN-ACRE FISH POND.
Col. Yonge has (near Opelika, Ala.,) the
finest and most expensive fsh-pond in the
South, or possibly in the United States. He
has over seven acres of reliable water, aver.
aging possibly seven feet in depth. 1t is fed
by eight or ten large and bold springs, that
yield perfectly clear water. A large creek
flows around the pond, COL Yonge having
preferred to trust to his springs rather than
the creek; which is hence rather unceremo-
niously sent to the left flank by deep ditch.
The water of the pond is perfectly clear,
and any one riding in one of the boats on the
lake can see myriads of fish swimming lazily
way down in the limpid depths
I got world of information from Colonel
Yonge on the subject of the breeding of the
fish. The pond is stocked with trout, red
horse, and Dream. The Dream, when she
goes to spawn, scoops out hollow place in
the sand,
MAKING A NEST LIKE A GUINEA HENS.
In this nest she deposits her eggs, number
ing probably forty thousand. The trout
makes a larger nest, something like goose's,
and lays about thirty thousand eggs. The
mother sets over the eggs for twelve days
She does not touch them, as the warmth OF
her body is not necessary to hatch them, but
she hangs stationary over them, keeping a
perpetual motion of the waves about the nest
by wagging her tail. This is done to keep
the mud and sand from settling over the eggs
and destroying them. The red horse do not
have nests but spawn in colonies Each fe.
male lays about sixty thousand eggs, and
they spawn close together in quite nelghbor'
ly way. The males (poor devils) of this
fecund colony, give their time to tanning the
sand off the eggs, and wag their obedient tails
with an admirable persistency: =,
1t is very interesting to watch the growth OF
the tiny fish items. The first thing that is
seen is a thick coating of white spread over
the nest. This is the lining of eggs, just as
they come from the matter. They are not
then impregnated, but are dead and dull.
The male then passes over the nest and quick
ems the eggs. AS he does this ..,'
. A TRANSPORTATION TAKES PLACE.
In each one of the eggs hitherto perfectly
white, tiny black spot appears. This is the
lfe-germ. The male then leaves the nest, and
the mother guards the family. In about six
days it will be noticed that those thousands Of
eggs will begin to rise, like flmy vapor,
from the sand. They keep we'll together, the
mother watching them day after day, as they
float upward, and by circling around them,
hold them in compact body. As they near
the top of the water the little cloud under the
water gets denser and thicker, as Athe little
atoms begin to tumble, and wiggle snd play
about. At last its edges become ragged and
irregular, as the bolder and stronger ones take
wider sweeps in their gambols. At this stage
the mother guards them very closely, and is
extremely fierce. About the fourteenth or
fifteenth day this cloud contracts and expands
finally breaks is scattered as If
by some submarine sunbeam, and then your
pond has about forty thousand more fish Ill it
than formerly.
The red horse and the Dream do not attend
their young after they have become old enough
to scatter; but the trout will swim around for
weeks with her
FAMILY OF THIRTY THOUSAND CHILDREN
her like young partridges.
The most remarkable part of the days ex-
hibtion was visit to a small house about
twenty feet square, situated upon the edge Of
the lake. In the centre of the house is a bold
and splendid spring Around the edges of the
house are series of troughs through which
the water is fed from the spring with an easy
flow. '..
THIS IS THE MATCHING HOUSE,
and these are the breeding troughs The
troughs are about three feet broad and two
feet Deep and divided into compartments, for
the accommodation of the various species, at
every five or six feet In these troughs, Col.
Yonge informed US, he frequently has half a
million of eggs
Some of these eggs are taken from the nests
in the ponds; but most of them, however, are
pressed directly from the fish. Col. 1onge
watches the pond closely, and when he sees a
- T. 4 H. ,n,;,, ;r,r torathor and prenar.