The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-07
THE GOLD FISH FARM.
BIGGEST THING IN SHELBY
 COCNTT. INDIANA.

I
 Those Entorprising Men No End
 of Trouble The Fish Are Shipped to
 All Parts of the World.
 A Waldron Gnd.) dispatch in the In dianapolis News" says: We have no use for the man with the hoe on this farm. When a man asks us for a job, We ask him how straight he can shoot. When one goes into the gold fish busi- ness in earnest, he finds that the man behind the gun is quite as necessary to the industry as he is in establishing a new republic. The receipt for gold fish farming is: Water, one part; toasted bread one part; gunpoWder and shot, two parts. We keep the atmosphere pretty well riddled around in these parts, but still we can't make it un- healthy enough to keep the snipe, the lzingfisher, and their brothers and sis ters from getting away with thousands i-yes, tens of thousands of fish every year"
 As the largest gold fish farmer in the world delivered himself of this opening bit of information on how to raise gold fish by the hundred thousand and to sell them he fioated bread peacefully on the water for the thousands of old gold fish to nbble at, and his conversation was punctuated by the cannonading carried on by his employees over his 9 acres.
 Walron is town of about 800 people, in southern Shelby county. Its only distinction, other than that it is a part of the Gibraltar of Indiana democracy, lies in the fact that mile north of town is the largest gold fish farm in the world.
 Last year William Shoup and Charles Heck, the men who developed this great industry, shipped over 100000 gold fish from here to different parts of the world. Their express bill at the WaldFOn station was in excess of $2,OOO They had to close down on shipments two months ago because the demands were greater than their supply. They have just finished increasing the capacity of their farm, by adding the fiftieth pond a large one that is now the home of 100000 stock fish growing to shipping size-and by putting in com plete water-works system to all parts of their farm They will be able to ship 150,000 perfect fish during the coming the coming year.
 Why" said the town loafer, as he whittled the dry goods box away from under him, T remember when Shoup and Heck used to wear blue jeans Nnyky I thoxyIx-a ernf tGIn money to fill that there big box" and he indicated the particular one by splattering its side with deluge of to- bacco juice. Yes, you'll find ShQup at home. Just go right up this ere street toward the school house, until you come to an iron fence-the iron fences his and you'll find him there.
 i The aristocrat of the iron fence who had arisen from the estate of the jeans trousers. was busy with pet fish. The i big fish farm was a mile in the country. He also owns second farm on which there is smaller fishery consisting of i five large ponds. It was, however. the one of 45 ponds, that was visited. The Spring Lake fishery can hardly be seen from the country road that runs
 
 Only the lower larger ponds are visible from the road The thirty or forty others in which the spawning is done, and the fish are matched. and grown to shipping size. occupy series of ter races
 The Spring Lake fishery land has a. drop of about one foot to every ten. At the top of this strip of land there are a series of springs that supply wa ter, The series of ten terraces then be- gins, and there are five to eight ponds on each terrace. The water passes through the upper ponds to those in the lower terraces until it reaches the last one, and from there it is pumped back to the fountain head and flushed in with water issuing from this spring
 The evolution of the fish begins with the first series of ponds, that are given over to the spawning and matching, When that fish is three weeks old that particular pond is drained out and the little and old fish are caught in screens and are separated. Gold fish are very prolific Each female is capable of pro- ducing 5000 eggs every two weeks. Three weeks after the fish is matched it begin to devOur the eggs that are deposited on blades of grass and straw and hay that are put around the edges of the ponds. It is then necessary to drain the lake and catch all. as indi- cated, i nscreens placed in the sluce- ways.
 The eighteen or nineteen large fish about six females and twelve males are then taken to one of the upper ponds that have been previously drained. and new spawning ground is given them. The hatch is divided into two or three parts. according to size and assigned to different ponds in the lower terraces. and as the fish grow they are carried on down through the ponds until, when they are about two inches long and are three or four months old, they finally land in the new, big pond. where there are now over 100000 fish "ripening." They are then ready for shipment.
 Four different kinds of gold fish are raised at the Spring Lake fishery and all are bred from imported fish that cost from S10 up. These different varie- ties are kept separated through all of the developing stages. This has been carried on so long that each variety is full-blooded according to it's classif- cation.
 The breeding ponds are about forty feet long and fifteen wide, and