XXIX.-ON THE CARP PONDS OF NETHER LUSATIA.^ 



By Dr. Edm. Veckkxstedt. 



jSTetber Lusatia, though not adornetl with great landscape beauty nor 

 blessed by nature with a rich and fertile soil, still presents many remark- 

 able and attractive features. There, on the upper and middle course 

 of the river Spree, only a few miles from the capital city of the Ger- 

 man Empire, a strange people has preserved its nationality. Even to- 

 day the nimble Wendiu passes us with foreign salutation in fantastic 

 attire. Our ponds and canals show many an idyllic picture, and the 

 l^roud high trees are ornaments to our parks such as are rarely found in 

 artificial gardens. 



The industry of Nether Lusatia, too, has been more and more devel- 

 oped every year. Our ponds not only enliven and beautify the laud- 

 scape but their object is essentially practical. Carp-breeding here has 

 obtained great results. In Hamburg, to mention one instance, the carp 

 of the " Spreewald " has outrivaled the Bohemian carp. 



Cottbus is the place of meeting for the so-called " Carp Exchange." 

 Every year, on the first Monday of the Cottbus fall market, a busy life 

 develops in the Hotel Ansorge there. The fish-dealers from Halle, 

 Leipsic, Dresden, Magdeburg, Posen — who name all the places and call 

 all the names'? — among them representatives of such firms as Kaumann, 

 Berlin, F. J. Meyers,Hamburg, the carp-king Fritsche, &g., have ar- 

 rived I'rom all parts of the compass to wait for the carp-harons. With 

 this name the first-class breeders are designated, as Mende-Dobrilugk, 

 who uudisputedly raises the lg.rgest carps ; von Lowenstein and Faber, 

 with a product of G-800 hundred-weight each ; Berger-Peitz, with at 

 least 2,000 hundred-weight, &c. These gentlemen meet in a separate 

 room as Fischcreiverein, with the expert Mr. von Treskow as their 

 president, to discuss the questions of the day and to determine approxi- 

 mately the price to be asked for the carps. After this business is 

 finished the sale-contracts proper are made. 



The weight of the carps from Upper and Nether Lusatia, represented 

 in Cottbus by their breeders, amounts to 8-10,000 hundred- weight; the 

 number of fishes to 2-300,000. 



This simple fact alone might occasion a comparison with the results 

 of the artificial fish-breeding, for which so Wtich. interest is shown. It 

 is known that since the publications of Professor Coste, of the College 



* Die Gartenlaube, 1877, No. 45. An den Karpfenteichen der Niederlausitz. Dr. 

 Edm. Veckenstedt. 



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