News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-04-30

Manner In Which 1t May be successfully
Carried Out.
A lad at Howell, Mich, writes as fol-
lows:
II am a farmers son, and want to
adopt your suggestion about fish pond.
Please give me all possible hints and de-
tails"
First, as stated in former article,
get your pond. don't remember hav-
ing seen any artificial fish ponds in the
North, but they are to be met with in
many parts of Georgia, Alabama, Vir-
ginia and other Southern States.
Almost every farm Las a creek or
''branch" running through it. Don't
attempt to make dam and pond on
the creek, for you will have muddy
water at times, and the best fish are
those which must have clear water. In
most cases you can find some natural
depression to which water from the
creek can be conveyed. If the distance
makes iron pipe too costly, you can use
earthen 6rain-pipe. A four-inch inlet is
large enough il you have good head of
water.
You first want a receiving basin.
This you can build of plank. By dig
ging it close to the creek you need only
three sides, the fourth being open to let
the water in. From this basin run your
pipe to the site selected for your pond.
For various reasons the pipe should be
as far below the surface of the ground
as you can get it and still preserve the
fall. If you can run the pipe to the
center of the pond and have the water
bubble up it will be all the better when
winter comes.
Over the mouth of your inlet pipe, as
it starts at the -rect living basin, you
must have slide or door. Make it fit
SO tightly that in case there comes a
freshet you can shut the water of.
AS to the depth of water in your
pond, don't stop short of four feet on
tho average. If there are no deeper
spots you must dig some before you run
the water in. If the ground is covered
with clean sod you can let it remain,
but take out all the old logs and stumps.
Have one side of your pond shelve down
to seven or eight feet, if possible, and
don't destroy any trees or oyerhanging
bushes which will give shade in the hot
days of summer. If you are handy to
coarse sand or gravel make shore for
fish to spawn on. You can shelve it
down, beach fashion, giving from six
inches to two feet depth of water for a
space hundred feet long.
How soon your pond will fill up and
how much water it will take to run it
will depend on the nature of the soil
and the lay of the land There will be
more or less evaporation, according as
the pond is sheltered, and if the soil is
loose or spongy the water will soak
away for long time. However, you
have only to keep the gate open and let
the creek work for you.
Now, as to the fish for your pond.
In the South they prefer the German
carp, as they multiply very fast and are
excellent eating. In the North black
bass, rock bass, pike, pickerel, sunfsh
and other varieties will do well in an
artificial pond. 1t may cost you little
money and considerable trouble to get
a plant, but you must remember that
fish multiply at an amazing rate. Ii
within hundred miles of any port on
the lakes where fishing is pursued as
business you could arrange to have
several varieties sent to you by express.
You can likewise net many specimens
from the nearest river.
Will your pond freeze up in winter
and destroy the fish ? 1t will certainly
freeze up solid if north of the Ohio
River, and for that reason keep your in
let pipe down below frost line, if pos
sible. and make the depth of the pond
as great as you can.
The ice will not freeze over two feet
thick n an average winter, and if the
water from your pipe bubbles up in the
center the ice at that point will not be
over six inches thick.
How long before you can begin to
reap the benefits It may take three
years, but by that time the thirty on
forty fish you begun with may numbeS
10000. Begin at the very outset t6
feed them at a regular hour. SelecT
some place where you can conveniently
use a net. The feeding will draw the
fish to that particular location, and when
your pond is ready to draw from the
net will not be cast in vain. Long be-
fore your fish are big enough to eat you
will find sale for all the samples" you
care to spare, as farmers all over the
country are waking up to the importance
Of this matter of fish-raising.
If at the North and you want the
several varieties of fish 1 mentioned, you
must provide for the habits of each as
you make your pond. Rock bass are
always found around wrecks, spiles and
timbers. Two or three barrels filed
with stones and sunk in water just above
their tops will be a good substitute for
spiles. Pickerel and black bass want
weedy corner in the pond to ramble
around in, but will take their rest in the
deepest holes. The sunfsh will haunt
the shallow water, and two or three
heaps of stones will be ''gratefully re-
Pike have the same general
habits as pickerel, but if you add bull
heads to your plant you mustn't forget
that they delight in mud.
German carp would do we'll at the
North, but they are no harder or better
eating than our pickerel and bass.
When your pond is completed and
stocked don't permit any one to worry
your fish. II they are harrassed and
annoyed, particularly during the spawn
ing season, you will be the loser.
If only fish enough were raised to
supply the farmhouse table it would
still be good thing for q farmers son
to go into. 1t is something which will
give him more than ordinary interest
and recreation, and the hours he spends
at the pond might otherwise be worse
than thrown away in the village.