CHAPTER VI 



SCALES, MIRRORS, LEATHERS 



The three words which I have placed at the head 

 of this chapter look as though they might have been 

 taken from some cabalistic formula, or have formed part 

 of a sign painted outside a shop dealing in all sorts of 

 junk; but no, I have simply taken them from a letter 

 sent to me by a friend who owns some ponds not far 

 from Argenton sur Creuse in which he breeds carp in 

 considerable numbers. He used these three words to 

 describe, as briefly as he could, the three main types of 

 fish in which he is interested. 



" You may remember," he wrote, " the experiments 

 which several of my neighbours have just carried out 

 at your suggestion to see whether ' mirror ' carp and 

 ' leather ' carp can be raised in the places where the old 

 breeds of ' scale ' carp have hitherto been bred. Most 

 of these experiments have turned out conclusively. 

 The ' mirrors ' and the ' leathers ' have shown that 

 they develop more quickly and more fully, perhaps 

 even that they are more hardy. They have given a 

 greater yield per acre. I thought I would try a similar 

 experiment myself. In the spring, I put equal quanti- 

 ties of good two-year-old fish of all three types into 

 my large hundred-acre pond. I took every conceivable 

 pains to get the pond suitably prepared so that I could 

 secure the best possible return. Last October I had 

 it emptied, left it dry for three months, then harrowed 

 it, limed it, and even manured it in places. I did not 

 let the water back until February, and it was the 

 beginning of March when I put in the young fish 

 which I had kept in a tank. 



