CHAP. iv.J CARP-BREEDING. 147 



filled with carp in Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Mecklenburg, 

 and Holstein, and the fish was bred and brought to market 

 with as much regularity as if it had been a fruit or a vegetable. 

 The carp yields its spawn in great quantities, no fewer than 

 700,000 eggs having been found in a fish of moderate weight 

 (ten pounds) ; and, being a hardy fish, it is easily cultivated, so 

 that it would be profitable to breed in ponds for the fishmarkets 

 of populous places, and the fish-salesmen assure us that there 

 would be a large demand for good fresh carp. It is necessary, 

 according to the best authorities, to have the ponds in suites 

 of three viz., a spawning-pond, a nursery, and a receptacle 

 for the large fish and to regulate the numbers of breeding fish 

 according to the surface of water. It is not my intention to 

 go minutely into the construction of carp-ponds ; but I may be 

 allowed to say that it is always best to select such a spot for 

 their site as will give the engineer as little trouble as possible. 

 Twelve acres of water divided into three parts would allow a 

 splendid series of ponds the first to be three acres in extent, 

 the second an acre more, and the third to be five acres ; and 

 here it may be again observed that, with water as with land, a 

 given space can only yield a given amount of produce, therefore 

 the ponds must not be overstocked with brood. Two hundred 

 carp, twenty tench, and twenty jack per acre is an ample stock 

 to begin breeding with. A very profitable annual return 

 would be obtained from these twelve acres of water ; and, as 

 many country gentlemen have even larger sheets than twelve 

 acres, I recommend this plan of stocking them with carp to 

 their attention. There is only the expense of construction to 

 look to, as an under-keeper or gardener could do all that was 

 necessary in looking after the fish. A gentleman having a 

 large estate in Saxony, on which were situated no less than 

 twenty ponds, some of them as large as twenty-seven acres, 

 found that his stock of fish added greatly to his income. 

 Some of the carp weighed fifty pounds each, and upon the 



