556 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [90] 



stock ponds partly as raising ponds is generally an indication of dis- 

 proportion between the raising- ponds and the stock ponds. It will 

 therefore be well at the very start to classify the ponds, properly 

 assigning enough of each class for the purpose which they are to serve, 

 and. make a point of having every year a full suj)ply of two years' fish 

 (not counting the year in the raising ponds) for stocking the stock 

 ponds. Where local circumstances forbid this, the inferior stock ponds 

 Should also be partly used as raising ponds, or have stock ponds witli a 

 two years' course. The stock ponds are, therefore, stocked with fish 

 M'hich have spent one or two years in the raising ponds, but only in such 

 a manner that those stock ponds which are fished clean every year are 

 stocked with two years' fish, and those which have a two years' course 

 with one year's fish. In exceptional cases, however, if the stock ponds 

 are particularly good and there is a lack of fish, they may be stocked 

 with one year's fish and lished clean in autumn, when, sui^jjosing that 

 there is sufficient Ibod and ample loom for the fish, a satisfactory yield 

 may be expected in every case. The largest fish nnist be selected for 

 stocking the stock ponds, and, even if in these ponds they do not reach 

 the largest possible size, there will nevertheless be some profit."* 



There may be cases where circumstances not at all connected w itii 

 the ])ond farm may necessitate a two years' course in a stock pond, r. 

 g., when the water has also to serve industrial purposes, mills, »S:c. In 

 such a case the profits of annual fisheries would not compensate for 

 the losses occasioned by the stO]»page of a mill or factory, and all that 

 can reasonably be looked for is to raise marketable carp weighing 3 or 

 4 pounds. Although it should be the aim of every rational pond culti- 

 vator to make his young fish marketabk^ as rapidly as possil)le, it would 

 be an erroneous and irrational i)rocee(ling to finish the course of devcl- 

 oj)m(Mit Avitli the third year, and bring to market three-year-old carp 

 weigiiing on an average oidy 1.5 jwunds ai)iece. I feel comi)elled to call 

 special attention to this matter, because experience has shown that 

 there are pond (arms where such irrational methods are Ibllowed, in the 

 belief that a good business is being done. It does, therefore, not seem 

 superfluous to show the unreasonableness of such a course by giving a 

 brief sketch of an imaginary pond farm of small size, where, deluded 

 by a ready market for carj) weighing 1.4 to l.OiJOunds — it probably be- 

 ing impossible for the consumers to get carj) weighing 2 ])oun(ls any- 

 where in the neighlunhood — the i>ropiietor follows the above system, 

 and comi)aring therewith anotlier brief sketch of a systematic pond 

 farm selling three-year-old carj) weighing 1.5 pounds apiece, and finally 

 oftering for further comparison the sketch of a farm selling four years' 

 fish with a minimum weight of 2 i)ounds apiece. 



We suppose the pond farm to have eleven ponds, with a total area 

 of 700 ares, the largest pond covering 220 ares, and the smallest two 

 G.S and 8.5 ares, the renjainder varying from 35 to 92 ares. The ponds 



Vou Reider, Das Gniize Her Fisclierei, Wii. 



