1887 



gleani:ngs in bee cui^tuke. 



779 



came alarmed, and was about to conclude 

 they must have more water from some 

 source or they would all die. But all at 

 once they stopped ilying, and have been 

 smart and healthy ever since, as you see 

 them now. There is surely some hidden 

 truth that w^e haven"t yet got hold of in this 

 matter of carp-keeping." 



There is a good moral here, friends. We 

 are all prone to be in haste to decide what 

 the matter is with our bees, fish, and other 

 domestic animals ; but a great many times 

 a little patient watching would show us that 

 we arc entirely wrong. He resumed : 



•• Why, when I drew off that first pond a 

 few fish were left in the mud. to be gathered 

 up and taken to the lower pond at some oth- 

 er time. They were forgotten, however, and 

 when remembered I felt certain they were 

 all dead. Imagine my surprise to find them 

 alive, and apparently unharmed, although 

 they had been several days almost without 

 any water at all. They simply burrowed in 

 the soft mud." 



This fact indicates what has been stated 

 many times before, that carp are wonderful- 

 ly tenacious of life. When you are in a hur- 

 ry you can pitch them on the grass, espe- 

 cially if the grass is wet, and leave them for 

 several houis. So far as I can discover, it 

 does not seem to harm them. Now, al- 

 though friend WHiite is remarkably success- 

 ful, he has not taken nearly as much pains 

 as he might do, and his ponds were not re- 

 markably tidy at the time of our visit. I 

 noticed marks of chickens, and, if I remem- 

 ber correctly, also ducks and geese, in the 

 mud around this second pond. When I 

 asked if they didn't gobble up the fish he 

 said he supposed they did, and that they 

 must be fenced out ; but as the fish were so 

 plentiful it didn't matter very mucli. Just 

 then I remembered his advertisement of carp 

 for only $1.L'.5 per UiO, and I interrogated : 



" Look here, old friend ; how' do you catch 

 the fish, even after you liave got them, so as 

 to sell them so cheap V" 



•' Oh ! that is the easiest thing in the 

 world. 1 just take the scoop over there and 

 dip them out ; take out what I want, and 

 let the rest go back in." 



•' But didn't it take a good deal of scoop- 

 ing to get a hundred fish of the size you 

 want for an order V 



•• Why. bless you. no. At one time we 

 made careful count, and I actually brought 

 out .5-56 fish at one dip. I called them up 

 with a piece of bread, as you see them there, 

 and I got the scoop right under them." 



I felt like taking off my hat and bowing 

 my head to the superior skill of this old gen- 

 tleman wiiom I had decided to call upon, 

 and felt again the folly of living for years so 

 near by our neighbors, and going through 

 life without even knowing what is going on 

 within ten miles of us. In fact, I had sev- 

 eral times thought of making long and ex- 

 pensive journeys to see carp establishments 

 in good running order, and here was this 

 old friend fussing away at home by himself, 

 who had made a great stride in advance of 

 any of us— at least, I call it a great stride. 

 With his rude appliances and cheap, simple 

 little mud dams, he had been selling carp to 

 stock ponds for about one-fourth the usual 

 prices, and he was doing well at it. 



•' Friend White, what does all this straw 

 mean in the water, and up along the shore 

 of this pond ?" 



I had concluded mentally he had put it in 

 for the carp to attach their eggs to while 

 spawning ; but I thought I would move cau- 

 tiously this time. 



" Oh ! that is the straw left after I feed 

 them oats in the bundle. It does not look 

 very tidy, but they seem to like oats in the 

 bundle better than in any other way ; and it 

 is a nice place for the little carp to dodge 

 around among the straws." 



Did you ever 1 feeding fish oats in the 

 bundle I No doubt those little chaps took as 

 much comfort in skulking around through 

 the straws as fowls do around straw-stacks 

 in a large barnyard. I decided not to find 

 any fault with friend W. while he evidently 

 seemed to know so well what he was doing. 



The next thing that attracted my atten- 

 tion was the handles of some frying-pans, or 

 skillets, that were just under the water on 

 the opposite shore. I came pretty near ask- 

 ing him if he fed the fish frying-pans as well 

 as oats in the bundle; but I was beginning 

 to think I had better move carefully. The 

 explanation was, " Why, certainly ; those 

 frying-pans are wliat we cook the corn-meal 

 in. You see. the fish are very fond of corn- 

 meal mush, and we just carry it down to 

 them and shove it under the water, and, oh 

 my I how they do go for it! We have two 

 frying-pans, so as to cook in one while they 

 are eating out of the other."" 



No wonder friend White's lish grow and 

 multiply and replenish tiie earth. I didn't 

 suggest to him then that he was fulfilling 

 the scriptural injunction by raising fish; 

 but he will know it when he sees this in 

 print. 



We passed down to the next pond. This 



