Do any of you have old back issues of Organic Gardening and Farming. I am specifically interested in 1973 thru 1978. I read Todd & McClarney's article "the back yard fish farm" in Jan 1972 issue. He said he would report results of these experiments on growing tilapia on a homestead scale in future issues. My own collection skips the years listed above. If anyone has those issues I'd like to see the follow-up reports; there are likely several. I contacted Organic Gardening & they said they were too busy to help me. My local library collection of OGF does not go back far enough. Thanks!

-- Nick Medin (nmedin@pdqnet.com), July 04, 1999

Answers

Ive got thirty odd issues from just those years. E-mail me with exactly what you are looking for and I'll try to scan it and send it to you.

-- Jason Youngblood (youngblood1@mindspring.com), July 09, 1999.

In the Jan 1972 issue of OGF, page 99, is an article by Todd & McLarney, "The Back Yard Fish Farm". This is the first article in the "readers research program" about homestead scale fish farming. Once the readers built a greenhouse and set up a fish pond, T&McL sent tilapia to use to raise a crop of fish. The subsequent articles were to describe the results of this research. Since I am missing the following issues I do not have specific references and am seeking any and all subsequent articles about these fish rearing experiments. McLarney eventually published the results in a book, published in 1981, but, of course, it is LONG out of print. I want to locate these original articles. There should be several of them in the following years. Any other articles about fish farming also interest me. One I came across was from the Nov 1973 issue of OGF entitled "Raising Catfish in a Barrel". I found this on Kurt Saxons website www.kurtsaxon.com Many thanks for your help.

-- Nick (nikoda@pdqnet.com), July 10, 1999.

Ok Nick, It seems my collection is mostly 1978 and 79 with a few 76 and 77's. I did find two articles that might interest you though. One was from April 1976 called "A Farm Pond in the Backyard" by Jack Ruttle. The other was from February 1978 called "Fresh Trout from the Backyard" by Gene Logsdon. I imagine both of these interest you. Let me know and I'll try to scan them soon.

-- Jason Youngblood (youngblood1@mindspring.com), July 10, 1999.

Jason, Yes, yes,please do scan and send when you can. Much appreciated!

Nick

-- Nick (nikoda@pdqnet.com), July 10, 1999.

www.amazon.com conducts auctions and sells some old magazines. I'm sure I've seen some of the Organic Gardening Magazines in the auctions.

-- Tammy Posey (tlpcrazy8@yahoo.com), August 03, 1999.

Nick, By October 1973 they were referring readers to a pamphlet or booklet prepared by the New Alchemey institute and available from Rodale, which told how the experiments were going. I've looked through my issues that I could find and discovered nothing much about the experiments other than mention of "over 25" experiments in progress around the country. Will keep looking.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), August 03, 1999.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me information or more. I finally tracked down the needed issues in a library (microfilm). And you folks are right that the articles I expected to find simply are not there. I did locate the original publication by McLarney; it is out of print, but supposedly available as a photocopy. I sent in my squeeze, but no book yet. Soon, I hope.

-- Nick (nikoda@ pdqnet.com), August 03, 1999.

Nick; I belong to the Virginia Fish Farmers association, and we have a few people who are raising Tilapia and plants in a recirculating system in a greenhouse. The nutrients in the water from the fish tank feed the plants, the water is then circulated back into the fish tank. We had a display of this at the Virginia State Fair a few weeks ago. Tilapia are a fast growing fish and can be harvested after six months. I have been trying to get this type of system up and running at our place but health and different things are slowing us down. You could e-mail Ralph Mc Laughlin at ralphMcl@aol.com he has this system and is the president of our organisation. you could also contact Linda Layne at farmlady99@yahoo.com.

-- Bruce Burdge (burdgebruce@richmond.com), October 09, 2000.