154 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL XI, 



of which the first have been newly hatched in separate ponds 

 while the others have been retained from previous years, hibernat- 

 ing during the winter. In November of each year the ponds are 

 almost entirely drained and the pools are then netted for their 

 contents ; the marketable ones are culled out and sold to contractors 

 from the cities and towns, while the others are returned to the pools 

 for the winter; those purchased for consumption are stored by the 

 contractors in reservoirs or special pools till needed ; and since 

 carp hibernate they need no food, and practically lose no weight, 

 while in storage. 



The price at present is comparatively low, viz., a little over 7^ 

 annas per pound. The produce per acre is smaller than I expected, 

 though the owners do not seem dissatisfied. My chief informant 

 wished that all his land were water as giving more profit and less 

 trouble than arable land. His live weight produce on 88 acres 

 averages lOO German centners or 11,000 lb. English or 125 lb., 

 worth Rs. 60 per acre, which is slightly better than the general 

 Bavarian average of IIO lb. per acre. On another set of ponds the 

 outturn of 200 acres was 22,000 lb. worth 14,000 marks, of which 

 4,000 are allowed for cultivation expenses ; net profit 10,000 marks, 

 or 50 marks (Rs. 37-8-0) per acre, but from this must be deducted 

 an allowance forbad years (owing to drought, floods, disease, etc.) 

 and so forth. Still the average net profit is obtained with some 

 certainty and a minimum of trouble. In India it is believed, as will 

 hereafter be shown, that the outturn per acre of available water 

 may be far greater. 



In another part of Germany a visit was paid to a leading carp 

 and trout culturist, who courteously showed not only his own 

 establishment but a large experiment now in progress for utilizing 

 a large area of waste and barren heath land of no present value for 

 cereal crops ; a similar and successful experiment was seen in 

 Belgium, This low lying marshy land has been fashioned into 

 ponds fed from a navigation canal which borders them; the system 

 is similar to that known as Dubisch's system, the spawning taking 

 place in very small breeding ponds whence, after a few days, the 

 fry are collected and placed in larger ponds (nurseries) and thence 

 transferred, after about six weeks, to the growing ponds. The 

 object in this treble and even quadruple transference is to appor- 

 tion the food to the number and growth of the fish ; only a certain 

 number of fry in the alevin stage are placed in the nurseries at the 

 rate of about 12,000 to the acre. After a few weeks the food 



