It may seem somewhat superfluous to say that fish cannot live in any water unless that water contains the food supply necessary for them to thrive upon, and yet this is the point most often overlooked in stocking waters with fish. Small attempts at stocking with creatures suitable for food, particularly after the fish have been already introduced, are not at all likely to succeed. Such an important matter when treated as a small afterthought is almost sure to end in failure of the whole business of stocking. But a small amount of thought will convince any one that in order that there may be a sufficient amount of animal life in a water, there must be an adequate vegetable life, for weeds are almost always necessary to the well-being of the creatures which serve as food for fishes. In the case of a pond it is generally fairly easy to introduce a good stock of suitable weeds. The best method is to let the pond down as low as possible, and then to plant some weeds round the margin; the water is then allowed to gradually fill up the pond, and as it rises weeds are planted round the rising margin of the water. In ponds which cannot be emptied at all, or not sufficiently to carry out this plan, weeds may be planted in an easy but not quite so effectual a manner. They may be planted in shallow baskets containing some mud from the bottom of the pond, and then lowered in suitable places from a boat, or bundles of the weed may be tied to stones and dropped into the water in a similar manner. These latter methods are, of course, not so good as actually planting the weeds round the advancing margin of the water, for success depends to a certain extent upon chance. Some of the weeds thus planted are, however, sure to take root and grow. Plants of different kinds, of course, are necessary at different depths and on different kinds of bottoms, and good kinds are necessary at the margin of the water as well. I give a list of some suitable plants of each kind at the end of this chapter. Similar methods are used in planting weeds in rivers and streams to those used in ponds. If the weeds are planted in baskets, the baskets must, of course, be weighted when put in a position where the current can act upon them. Besides vegetation in the water, vegetation on the bank is of considerable importance. I shall deal with this at a later period more fully, as trees and bushes, besides harbouring many insects which serve as food for fish, have also considerable importance in giving cover to the fish and to the fisherman who is pursuing them.