Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1883 — Fish Culture. [ARTICLE]

Fish Culture.

Many people seem to entertain the idea that our game fish are not food fish, and that the work of the Fish Commissioners has been confined almost exclusively to the propagation and increase of game fish. The fact of the matter is that our better class of fresh water food fish is composed principally of game fish. It costs no more to cultivate a good variety of fish than it does an inferior one, and I am sure the people would rather live on beef than liver, especially when one costs no more than the other. Some waters are not calculated to produce the best varieties of fish, and it is therefore impossible to stock such waters with anything but the more common kind. For instance, some persons write me that they have a small lake in their vicinity, perhaps a mile or two long, and proportionately wide, principally muddy bottom, and containing flags and pond lilies, and they wish to stock it with black bass. My reply is that black bass will not do well in such water, for the reason that it does not answer the requirements of their nature. They require clear, bright water, with a rocky bottom, ana crawfish for food; also a larger territory for their increase, as in water suitable for them they multiply rapidly. They thrive best in large, clear lakes and swift, rocky rivers. For such waters as described above I would recommend yellow perch and bullheads, and if it contained both of these varieties, and it was desired to put in another kind, I would advise Oswego bass, a fish closely resembling the black bass in appearance, but differing greatly in habits and other particulars. * I am frequently called upon to furnish salmon trout for small lakes, rivers and creeks. I have tried the experiment many times of putting them in such waters, but they have invariably failed to thrive. The only waters they do well in are large, clear-water lakes having a depth of not less than 100 feet. They are strictly a deep-lake fish. In shallow lakes the water gets too warm for them, and unless they can have access to the deep cold water beyond the penetrating heat of the sun, they will surely die.— Seth Green. I In Amsterdam the women have succeeded in having clocks placed on the lamp-posts in order to facilitate the return of their husbands at night. A good watch is known'l>y its works. It may be real good without having ja pretty face. Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscienoe in Sterne. u