No. 5 (1917) CARP-GROWING IN GERMANY 1 59 



— and marketed at a size of 8 inches to 10 inches in October when 

 the paddy crop is over, the rapidity of growth being due to the 

 warmth and abundant supply of fish food in the well manured fields. 

 As a matter of fact, there are many places which, already 

 swampy or damp, as under canal banks or at the tail end of the 

 irrigation sources, might be converted with little expense into fish 

 ponds, thus turning useless and even miasmatic areas into profit- 

 able and wholesome food-producing waters. Travelling recently 

 along the Kurnool canal for about TOO miles, many places were 

 noted below the artificial bank which were quite unutilized for 

 crop growing, being too marshy for dry crops and unsuited, 

 without much preparation, for paddy. Very slight excavation and 

 banking would turn these into permanent ponds, more productive 

 in food and money than the best paddy lands. In areas bordering 

 other canals, e.g., in Kistna, the ground-water level even in areas 

 not actually commanded for irrigation purposes by the canals, is 

 often so high that almost permanent water may be reached at 4 or 

 5 feet, and the supply could be readily increased by a very low 

 lift, e.g., by cheap windmills, either from the canals or from wells. 

 In Bengal water is occasionally bought for fish ponds from irriga- 

 tion sources. Where mere percolation-water is not available this 

 plan is often possible under our canals and tanks either by flow or 

 low lift according to the nature of the ground. There is then 

 already plenty of water in this Presidency which may be cultivated 

 with fish instead of merely growing, at best, a haphazard wild 

 crop of fish, and which can be increased in area and permanence 

 by the expenditure of slight capital and labour, and in production 

 by the adoption of simple methods of cultivation. 



The remarks just off"ered as to the nature of jMadras waters 

 themselves dispose of the second question, viz., whether carp will 

 grow successfully in such waters. To some extent they are there 

 already, but they merely grow and are not cultivated, while 

 predaceous fish unduly predominate. The waters are precisely 

 those most suited for omnivorous carp. They are full of the 

 matters which, as already mentioned, are those deliberately 

 introduced into German, Chinese, and other fish ponds, while under 

 tropical conditions rapidity of growth is even more probable than 

 in Japan and China. The carp of tropical countries are usually 

 larger and grow far more rapidly than those of European waters. 

 Carp of a single summer may easily exceed I lb. in weight since 

 in the warm parts of the United States of America 3 lb. or 4 lb. 



