HOW TO FEED POND FISH DUCKS. 341 



about to breed, whicli will be from May to July, that 

 common wattled hurdles should be placed on the top of 

 the water and fixed there by posts. These will not only 

 afford places for the fish to attach their spawn, but will 

 also answer as hides, and nothing is more important in 

 fish cultivation than to give them hides. On the whole, I 

 think that fish-ponds are generally made a great deal too 

 deep. There should be a deep hole or two where the fish 

 may run for protection, but the general depth of the pond 

 should be shallow, as fish like shallows, and it is more 

 favourable for the multiplication of insect life. One 

 often wonders where all the mud comes from. "With- 

 out doubt it is mostly formed by dead leaves. These 

 leaves, therefore, should be collected and burnt, or other 

 means employed to prevent them being blo^\^i by the 

 wind into the water. The American weed is a great 

 nuisance in fish-ponds. I am sorry to say I do not 

 know how to destroy it. The process therefore of 

 drying the ponds will be, I think, the surest mode of 

 getting rid of it, A dose of common salt may also be 

 tried. 



It must be remembered, that the more you feed your 

 fish in ponds the quicker they will grow and the larger 

 they will become. To feed fish in a pond I strongly 

 recommend that a dead cat or rabbit, miskinned, should 

 be hung up in a tree over the pond. The gentles 

 resulting from the blow-flies will fall into the pond and 

 afford excellent food for the fish. Care should also be 

 taken to collect after a shower at night, by the aid of a 

 lantern, the large lobvv^orms that are then plentiful. 

 The fish should be always fed at the same place. 



A curious fact has come to my knowledge relative to 

 the cultivation of fish-ponds. A gentleman in Glouces- 

 tershire had some roach, dace, eels, carp, &c., in a pond, 



