Refjort No. 5 (/9/7). 





CARP-GROWIXG IX GERMANY. 



BY 



Sir F. a. NICHOLSON, 



Honorary Dirkctor ok Fisheries, W auras. 



The paper printed below was contributed in 1908 to the Madras 

 Mail and is now republished by kind permission. It should have 

 found place in bulletin No. I but was accidentally omitted. 



Its origin accounts for the merely popular form in which it is 

 written, but it appears to embody useful facts and suggestions. The 

 intelligent iadustry of the ordinary German peasantry yields a 

 remarkable lesson for our own folk, but the methods are not con- 

 fined to Germany or even to Europe, but are very highly developed 

 in China and Japan. 



While carp have been solely dealt with in this paper, it should 

 be noted that better fish, yielding as good results in weight and 

 better results as food, will shortly be available ; this Department 

 has, since the paper was written, introduced tench and gourami 

 {Osphromenus olfax) to our low-country waters, and when these have 

 sufficiently increased they may be issued for private culture. 



The curing yards will also probably be able to supply cheap food 

 for artificial feeding, since there is considerable refuse from all 

 classes of fish-curing, whilst masses of manurial fish (sardines and 

 " podimin ") caught in excess can frequently be dried, ground up, 

 and sold at extremely low rates. But in most cases the local sources 

 of refuse and wild foods, as additions to those found in the ponds 

 themselves, must be relied on for the artificial feeding of fish. 



Some of the most pleasant days of a recent tour in FAirope were 

 spent in visiting peasant holdings in Bavaria where the farmers 

 grow crops of cereals and of fish, mostly carp, alongside of one 

 another. There are many thousands of these carp ponds in this 

 small kingdom and, as one farmer said, they are more profitable 

 than an equal area of good land. The ponds visited which are 

 typical, are purely natural drainage ponds lying in low bottoms 



