The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-05
THE VALUE OF A POND.
An English Writer Shows What May Easily Be Done With It.

If people only knew what valuable possession a sheet of water is they would not let such places run to waste.
 There Is not somuch profit to be made out of an acre of land as can be got from an acre of water when properly treated. This was understood cen- turies ago, when fish had to be eaten on fast days, and there were no fish trains running from the coast to supply the inland towns and villages. The mon- asteries set the example with their elaborate stew ponds and fish breeding arrangements and ponds and stream all over the country were utilized for preserving fish. In our time we put the streams to very different use by turn ing into them our drains of sewage and and manufacturing refuse; and which once swarmed with salmon and trout now flow a mass of corruption and putrefaction into the sea, contaminat- ing the oyster beds with typhoidal germs.
 Acts of Parliament seem to have very little effect in reforming the pre- S6llL GOllQlblOll LII IlllllSSJ HliASAA ly are worse in the manufacturing dis tricts than in other parts of England. No one, for instance, can go near the river Don, below the town of Shelf field and Rotherham, without smelling the river quite a mile off, and the sight of it's black and fetid waters makes it impossible to believe that within the memory of man salmon and trout were freely caught in them with the fly and worm. The smaller streams which run into the Don are not in much better state, for they are mostly pollut- ed by ochre water from neighboring pits, which is utterly destructive to fish life. All this contamination has naturally affected the purity of the drinking water and the surrounding villages within radius of twenty miles from Sheffield are now mostly supplied by the corporation of that city from their huge reservoirs up in the Pennine range of hills
 It is of these reservoirs I wish to speak, and other smaller sheets of wa- ter, such as ponds and old quarry holes, and even marshy grounds These are the places where fish can be cultivated and reared with very favorable results, and with slight outlay and expense. Private waters for the most part are allowed to take their chance; and though they may have coarse fish in quantity those for eating and market able purposes are of no value. How easily this might be altered and rectt- fled is not sufficiently known; and quite irrespective of sport from the anglers point of view valuable results will follow from the cultivation of the better class of fish There are certain kinds of trout which do well in ponds, notably the Lochleven and rainbow varities; but, of course, very much will depend upon the quality of water and the amount of feed in the form of in sect life, shellfsh, caddis worms, etc These may be artifcially cultivated if they are not naturally indigenous to the water.
 As an instance of the rapid growth of fish in suitable water have known of, yearling rainbow being put into a reservoir in April, and taken out in October the same year weighing a pound The rainbow fish, however, is not suitable for stocking all waters. It will mot thrive where the water is shallow, and it has 8 habit of getting out, if it can, up or down stream, and disappearing. 1t is particularly suc- oaCsF,,l iy 1aap rocar,-ni,.r. opd +bongt like all trout, when it gets to four or five pounds in weight it rarely rises to to the fly except in tile evening, it may be taken by other lures. The Loch- leven trout for general purposes will be found the easiest to manage; and as they are naturally a lake fish, they rise to the fly more freely than the brown trout in confinement.
 One of the great difficulties in deal ing with large sheet of water like a reservoir of perhaps fifty or sixty acres Is the impossibility of clearing out the big trout, which grow to seven or eight pounds in weight, and perhaps more, and become ruthless, cannibals. Smaller fish of not more than two or three pounds have the same propen- sity; but they do rise to the fly in the late evening, and are taken, which is not the case with the bigger fish. The consequence is that if you stock the must make allowance for enormous losses of young fish, and act accord ingly A small pond may be run off or dragged periodically with net, and the large fish removed. The owner therefore of a small sheet of water, say half an acre, has an advantage over the owner of a big reservoir, for he can better manage his fishery,
 All that has to be done Is to breed the fish, which is very simple matter both as regards cost and trouble The price of a small matching tank and one thousand eyed ova from the Solway Fishery, Dumfries, is eleven shillings and sixpence. The tank has to be placed under a tap of water, which must be of pure quality, and a small trickle allowed to run for about six weeks, or perhaps a little longer The alevins will then disappear, each one with little sac attached to its stom- ach containing the food necessary to support life for several weeks. The sac will graudally disappear and when 1t has gone the fish will require to be fed; but as this is difficult and com plicated affair, it is better to turn out the divine at once into the pond, talk ing care that the temperature of the water of the tank is about the same as