How to obtain it. 79 



enough merely to make a pond, and put fish therein and expect 

 them to grow. It would be just as reasonable to fence in a piece 

 of moor, turn down a lot of lambs, and without any further 

 trouble, expect to receive in return a good crop of mutton, 

 Practically, however, this ' is the way in which fish culture has 

 often been attempted, and the result has been taken as a fair 

 average of its value. Properly cultivated water will yield excellent 

 results, but unless the right conditions exist, it is as impracticable 

 to obtain them as is the case with badly cultivated land. 



Take the case already referred to of a pond that has been 

 neglected for many years, and that has in consequence become 

 filled with weeds and mud. The first thing to be done is to clean 

 it out, and having done this, to set about preparing the bottom 

 for future use. The treatment necessarily varies according to 

 circumstances. It should remain empty for at least a year, and 

 during that time care should be taken that all noxious weeds 

 are destroyed. The bottom should be cultivated. As soon as the 

 soil of which it is composed is dry enough, plough it by all means, 

 if it be at all practicable to do so. In a great many cases this 

 can be done to a considerable extent. There may be places 

 which remain soft and watery, and others where the bottom is too 

 uneven or stony, but these tracts can be avoided, and may be 

 cultivated in some other way afterwards. Wherever there is a 

 spot that remains wet and soft, it should be drained by means of 

 an open gutter, which can easily be filled up again if desired 

 before the refilling of the pond takes place. Parts that cannot be 

 reached by the plough should be turned over somehow, and the 

 whole of the pond bottom should be harrowed as soon as the 

 dryness of- the soil will admit of it. Places should be marked 

 that are by nature the best adapted for making beds, for the 

 planting of the necessary future crop of vegetation. These beds 

 should be prepared by carting on to them a few loads of suitable 

 soil. This soil should not be taken from a tract of wet or boggy 

 land, but from a dry corner somewhere. It should, if practicable, 

 be of a different nature from that which forms the pond bottom, 

 and the two may with advantage be amalgamated by digging. 

 Where this soil is of poor quality it should be improved by some 

 well-rotted stable manure, which may be dug or ploughed into it, 



