Year: 1879

snys nbont Stocking Suburban Ponds


ami Streams with Fi.h-Petcr Cooper.


At recent meeting of the Farmers
club, held in the Cooper Union, New
York city, the members listened to a
speech from the venerable Peter Cooper
and paper by Robt. B. Roosevelt, one
of the State fish commissioners. on
"Land farming and water farming"
Mr.. Roosevelt, who believes that birds
are given to men to shoot and fish to
catch, provided both can be turned to
account as human food, and that there
is no more harm in carrying gun or
fshing-rod than in welding an axe or
spade, encouraged the idea OF wisely de.
veloping the sporting privileges of per-
sons convenient to our cities, and re-
moving the idea that any revenue from
it is degrading. "Trout, he said, "are
sold in New York market during their
season as high as one dollar pound,
price which is brought by scarcely any
other kind of animal food, and if their
supply can be increased benefit will
be conferred upon the community and
legitimate profit returned to those who
produce them, while in many places in
land and not accessible to the sea, that
great storehouse of fish food, there is
difficulty in obtaining even the common
est sorts of fish. If the farmer can add
to his usual crops crop of fish, he will
be benefting his neighbors as well as
himself. To do 80 may seem to many
at first glance a difficult operation, but
not half as much 80 as making the broad
acres slaugh with harvest seems to
the inexperienced. Fish-farmipg has
it's rules and limits, precisely as land
farming has, but is simpler and far
more productive. From single mature
fish millions of young may be produced.
A sturgeon contains nearly ten millions
of eggs, cod and herring millions, shad
hundreds of thousands, and even trout
and bass several thousands. With good
management these can all be Matched,
and in some cases in = very few days.
Once hatched, and fish provide for
themselves; they need no food or care,
they convert worthless insects or waste
watergrasses into human food. The
trout or bass from farmers Fond costs
him nothing but the trouble of catching,
and compares in excellence on his table
with his best poultry, to say nothing of
pork that has been fed twice day for
months. The only loss of time and
labor is in the catching, and to reduce
that it is only necessary to make the fish
abundant.


Mr.. Roosevelt did not advise farmers,
except in rare cases where they have
unusual facilities, to undertake the ar
ti6cial Matching of fish, but he urged
them to utilize such ponds and streams
as they can without labor and expense.
This might not yield the greatest pos
sible profit. but it would bring fair re.
turns, and in no wise interfere with
other occupations. cit would be irk.
some," he said, "for the farmer to
watch over the incubation of trout eggs,
which require months to produce the
young, nor is it necessary, 80 long as
the States take this labor upon them
selves and furnish, to all who need
them, trout fry already Matched. If
gentlemen owning suitable streams or
ponds desire to stock them with trout
they have only to apply at the State
hatching-house and, where nu "ber
combine, the expense to each is trihing.
After the trout fry are placed in their
proper element-and it must not be for
gotten that only cold spring-water is
suited to them-they will take care OF
themselves. In the course of year or
two they will have attained an edible
size, and can then be caught. Nothing
is simpler than this, and yet how many
streams and fine fresh brooks there are
that perhaps once abounded with trout
which are now wholly depopulated.
There is, however, another kind of fish,
known as the fresh-water bass, which is
possibly even more valuable than the
trout for the farmers use. It is not so
exacting in the character of the water
in which it will live, and will grow
more rapidly; more important still, it
needs no culture or care whatever, or
any time. The parents, which are fair
ly prolific, lay their eggs in sort of
nest and watch over them until they
are Matched. Bass have never failed to
increase rapidly where they have been
introduced, and they are suited to al
most any pond. These are especially
| the fish to be used where water farming
is to be combined with land farming in
the simplest and easiest way. Nothing
is required but to place few pair of ma
ture fish, which can be easily transport
cd, in any water they are expected to
populate, and they will attend to the
rest themselves. They can hold their
own with any other species, even
against the dreaded pickerel; they in
crease rapidly and grow quickly, and as
human food they are excellent"


Mr.. Roosevelt explained in answer to
many questions, that there are two kinds
of bass suited to different waters, but 80
alike in appearance as frequently to be
confounded. What is commonly known
az "big-mouthed ".bass thrives in mud
dy or stagnant water, while the little
mouthed fish require clean water run
ming over pebbly bottoms. The latter
are numbered among the sporting fish,
as are the trout, which until the past
three years were not protected by the
New York State commission.


Mr.. Cooper followed with an informal
talk, in which was briefly reviewed the
march of progress during his own life of
eighty.Hine years. Beginning when New
York city numbered $4,000 inhabitants,
he recounted incident after incident.
dwelling upon Fulton's application of
steam and his own inventions which
brought into use water as motive
power, and the sending of ore in mines
down descents by chain. One of the
first of his inventions, finally brought
into practical use under other hands,
was found to have been patented by him