Under this heading I can think of nothing that appears more appropriate
than the subject of the artificial propagation of fish. It is a subject
that has arrested the attention of many of the ablest minds of the
country, and the results of experiments have been thus far so satisfactory
that it is almost safe to predict that within the next ten centuries every
man, however poor, may pick bull-heads off of his crab apple vines and
gather his winter supply of fresh shad from his sweet potato trees at less
than fifty cents a pound. The experiments that have been made in our own
state warrant us in going largely into the fish business. A year ago a
quantity of fish seeds were sub soil plowed into the ice of Lake Mendota,
and to-day I am informed that boarders at the hotels there have all the
fish to eat that any reasonable man could desire. The expense is small and
the returns are enormous. It is estimated that from the six quarts of fish
seeds that were planted in the lake there are now ready for the market at
least 11,000,000 car loads of brain-producing food, if you spit on your
bait when you go fishing.