NOVEL LIVE STOCK 153 



well as the winter. A mud or loam soil is best adapted for 

 such a pond. A rocky, gravelly ground is not suited for 

 carp; the water should be the same depth all the year, as 

 variation has an injurious effect on the fish. 



Carp spawn in the spring. In stocking a pond three fe- 

 males are calculated to two males. The females lay a 

 great number of eggs, but only a small number are impreg- 

 nated. The most liberal estimate will not exceed from 800 

 to 1000 to one spawner, the aggregate per acre amounting 

 to from 4000 to 5000. 



The large cities containing large numbers of Europeans 

 furnish the principal markets for carp. The Jewish people 

 will not, as a rule, buy carp unless they are alive, so it is not 

 an uncommon thing to see fish dealers in the Hebrew quar- 

 ters pushing through the streets carts constructed as tanks 

 and peddling the carp alive. 



Some years ago carp ponds were quite a fad among farmers 

 of the Central West. Americans have been slow to adopt 

 the German carp as a food fish. 



Trout, of course, can be raised, and the high prices which 

 they bring, both in market and for fishing privileges, make 

 them very attractive; but the cold running water needed 

 makes opportunity for breeding them with access to a good 

 market generally unavailable to owners of five acres. 



There is another fish, famous for its eating qualities, which 

 well repays effort put upon its production. I refer to the 

 black bass. It is indigenous to the waters of the Eastern 

 states, where it is usually found in creeks or rivers. It can 

 be successfully bred in properly constructed ponds. 



Mr. Dwight Lyell, in Forest and Stream, has this to say 

 about a breeding place for the small-mouthed black bass. 

 "The pond should be six feet deep hi the center and two 



