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Show tfiaste Acres Offer Opportunity to Grow Food Underwater Victory Gardens . c;- ' t AS-'"- , v - --w. , - . ... -, i , " . -V r.. i. r-.r .,; .y . : : . . , -jm - -- .l" iWflii-YttV - -v -...nn..r -.v...,,, yw! i w'l 'itfivn A'-iw'.,K.ti "'Nt "-t" -v -- '- , .w wjv t L. i,.unif .ftss ' , - ' i i J sf;, , x' , . , - u ' ' - a '- - - ) f 1 :-" ' 'if i r - 1 i Homemade Pools for Hearing Fish Answer To Depleted Larders How does your underwater garden grow? In ponds, with Jittle plants called algae, tiny 'aquatic animals, water insects, in-sects, bluegill bream and bass, all in a circle. And the result can be 200 to 400 pounds of edible fish per watery acre a year, a sizable family supply sup-ply of high protein food to supplement rationed meat. Spade work for thousands of fish gardens has already been done on farms and ranches where gullied and waste land has been flooded to restore fertility to- the soil, in accordance ac-cordance with recommendations of the U. S. soil conservation service. Fertilizing for fish may seem strange to those who take their tuna from yacht decks or cast for trout in mountain streams, but experts have proved that well-managed fertilized fer-tilized ponds yield about twice as much fish as ordinary unfertilized ponds. The "crop rotation" goes like this: fertilizer feeds the microscopic micro-scopic aquatic plants or algae, al-I al-I gae feed tiny animals and water insects in-sects which feed the little fish, and, on a diet of little fish big fish grow bigger. War has cut the national supply sup-ply of marine food fish about 22 per cent. Biologists and engineers engi-neers of the soil conservation service say it would be practicable practica-ble to add enough farm and ranch ponds and reservoirs to furnish the nation with 100,000,000 pounds or more of fresh fish every year to help make up for this reduction. reduc-tion. With transportation and canning facilities directed toward war production, pro-duction, the aquatic garden that yields a crop of fish is as much a Victory garden as a plot of prize vegetables and there is no labor problem. A home-made pool is the only harvest equipment needed and hope of a good crop makes pleasure pleas-ure of such work as fertilizing and stocking the pond. Drawing at top illustrates food cycle by which the black bass comes to be what he is, the most highly prized catch of anglers. Below, at left, you see 16-year-old Robert Summers of Paragould, Ark., applying fertilizer fer-tilizer to a fish pasture of aquatic plants. Center: A young neighbor harvests a crop from the fish pond of Edgar Stephens, New Albany, Miss. Right: Young Judson Crowley of Watkinsville, Ga., eyes the harvest of fresh fish from his father's underwater Victory garden. |