The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-02-10
a GOLDFISH RANCH.

ing and shipping facilities. The bus
mess started in the smallest way and
has grown until it is one of the we'll
established industries of the Hoosier
State. This farm is in Shelby
county, and, strange as it may sound,
is actually located on high ground,
remote from any stream. There are
so many interesting and strange facts
about this place that to describe it one
is puzzled where to begin. tits called
''ranch," however and the owners,
Messrs. Shouy & Heck, declare
there is not ranch in Texas which
can equal their output in numbers.
They might also have added that
there are many ranches of far larger
dimensions and more ambitious pre-
tentions which fall far below making
the money return this unique ranch"
returns constantly. This goldfish
ranch is gold mine, with increasing
dividends and inexhaustible "pay"
in sight.
Twenty years ago William Shoup
was smaller farmer in Shelby coun-
ty, Indiana. He owned a fine spring
and made a pond in which to raise
carp for his table. Accidentally he
lost all his stock of fish by freshet
which destroyed his pond, and for
year or two was out of the fish busi-
ness. He procured afew stock gold
fish from firm in Louisville, with
which he proposed to experiment for
his own pleasure. 1t should be men
toned that Mr.. Shoup is naturally
close student of fishes. From earliest
boyhood he has shown liking for
every subject pertaining to fishes and
insects. He had no thought of max
ing any money out of goldfish, but
wanted to see what he could do in
the way of raising them. He repair
ed his pond and placed the few stock
fish in the water. He was astonished
at the rapidity with which the pretty
fish multiplied. In the fall after the
fish had been placed in the pond he
seined out more than three hundred
which were nearly FIVE inches long.
He foresaw that something must be
done to stop the increase or else he
must provide for the disposal of them.
He wrote the postmaster at Chicago
asking him to send him the address of a
dealer in goldfish. BY return mail
came an order for his fish from prom
inent bird and fish tancier who ad-
vised that remittance according to
the value of the fish would be sent
upon receipt. Mr.. Shoup sent the
three hundred fish and received a
check for forty five dollars, with an
order for all he could produce. AT
fifteen dollars a hundred, or fifteen
cents each, Mr.. Shoup could hardly
realize the possibilities in the business
he had discovered. At first he
thought few thousands would sup
ply the demand and decided to build
only two additional ponds. But when
the output of these ponds failed to
satisfy the demand, and when he
found that not merely fifteen cents
each, but frequently fifty cents each
was paid for pefect specimens, Mr..
Shoup stopped farming and became a
"gold fish man." AS such he is
known all over this country and in
many foreign lands. His ponds have
increased to sixty and his annual out
put to almost million fish year.
1t was after the business had be-
come profitable that Mr.. Shoup had
occasion to recall the freshet which
destroyed his carp ponds. A long
and heavy rain flooded the streams
and swept down between the hills in
to his goldfish ponds. He feared and
expected his ponds to break, but by
ceaseless watching he saved them.
He determined, though, to move his
"ranch" to higher ground, and pur-
chased a tract of hundred acres a
few miles distant from his first ponds.
He knew there was mighty spring
which diffusedits waters under ground
and fed good sized stream lower
down the valley. He purchased this
land and the spring and started in to
make his ponds on tract of level up
land. For years the spring was suf'
6cient to supply water for his ponds,
but as time went on the demand kept
growing, new ponds were added until
the spring proved inadequate. Then
recourse was had to mechanical power
and gas engine is now used to pump
water from deep we'll into the ponds
not supplied by the spring.
The ponds are arranged side by side
and are about two hundred feet long
by sixty wide, with a grassy bank be-
tween. The supply pipes and those
for the outflow are so arranged that
the water from any pond can be drain
ed without affecting the water in any
other pond. This arrangement is de-
sirable in order that the occupants of
any pond can be seined out or changed
without disturbing those in another
pond. The depth of the ponds vary
from few inches at the margin to
IOuI 10 SIX I6GI dl Tue uliuulC dnO
lower end. This secures warmth in
the shallow water of the margins
where spawing is done and affords the
tiny fish protection from the larger
ones, which will not pursue them in
the shallow places. Again. the deep
water in the middle affords protec-
ton from the heat of the sun and
causes all the fish to gather into a
small space when the ponds are
drained for the purpose of seining.
The color of goldfish no longer
determines its value. The shape is
the test which fanciers apply. While
some years ago the hues of the rain
bow were greatly desired in goldfish,
now it is the outlandish grotesque,
and even horrible appearance, that is
demanded.
While it is an established law oi
nature that birds will not mate with
other than their kind, fishes are moi