[5] POND-CULTIVATION ON THE KANIOW ESTATE. bot 
finer and more valuable specimens will be obtained; whilst the stocking 
of the ponds with a larger number of fish, if kept within reasonable 
bounds, will result in a greater total weight, but in an inferior quality 
of fish. Stocking ponds with a small number of fish is therefore to be 
recommended, but, like everything else, it should be kept within proper 
bounds, and a correct calculation will herein form the safest guide. 
No more than 90, and never more than 120, fish per acre are placed in the 
Kaniow ponds. The result has been that our breed of carp has steadily 
improved, and the number of kilograms of fish caught per year and per 
acre has been as follows: 
Kilograms. 
OM setters se iosita tod ateins wc adie t cute othe Soleo aS cient sr ataheaas 51.5 
JL Seo de ee cen ee a ay ae OOM LE ety 76. 76 
AS ie AMO OMS) 22 Pee A in ate iets cles wert ee a eae 83. 00 
ee Omir rth LN ean cel She wa av ts 2 AS Ie ee ee 104, 50 
thus, the yield of the ponds has more than doubled in six years, and re- 
garding the quality of our fish I can state that in one year we raise 
very fine carp, weighing 14 kilograms and more, which enjoy an excel- 
lent reputation in the Breslau and Hamburg markets. 
In favoring the growth of carp from their earliest youth, one has the 
special advantage that the fish, in spite of their size, remain slender in 
figure (that is, do not have those monstrous stomachs which are seen in 
some fish), and that they begin to grow fat at an early age, whereby, as 
in all animals, the development of the sexual organs is often entirely 
stopped, and the favorite fish of all gourmands, the ‘ barren carp,” is 
obtained. 
With the view of increasing the natural food in the ponds, they are 
allowed to lie dry during the winter, in order that the frost may de- 
prive the mud of its acidity, thus making it, by atmospheric influences, 
a suitable breeding-place for insects and infusoria. For the same rea- 
son I never allow the bottom of a fresh pond to be hoed before its first 
watering. This method has stood the test of a number of years. It 
seems best, however, if during winter the larger portion of the pond is 
exposed to the frost, leaving a small portion under water to serve as a 
place of refuge for valuable aquatic animalcule, where they may be 
sheltered trom the destructive cold, so that with the beginning of spring 
they can breed all the more rapidly and numerously in the freshly filled 
pond, and in this way be of great benefit to the carp. I have demon- 
strated with two of my ponds, which were treated in this manner, that 
by wintering some of the fish in the deepest places the result will be a 
steadily increasing number of fish during the fishing season, which is 
not the case when ponds have been under water for a long time. 
*The years 1874 and 1875 being transition years, have not been taken into account. 
t The greater portion of the fish of the year 1877 were not sold, but were kept in 
tanks. They were recently placed in ponds with the other stock of fish of 1578, and 
were finally sold with these. 
