COMMON CARP* 189 



calm day. A thousand, or twelve hundred of this 

 fry may be allotted to each acre of a pond. The 

 choice of the fry must be made according to the 

 above enumerated characters of good and healthy 

 fish, and must be carefully removed from one pond 

 to another. It is likewise requisite to send people 

 with long sticks, all the first day, round the pond, 

 in order to drive the tender and weak fry from the 

 sides of the pond, because they are bewildered in a 

 strange place, and often become the prey of rapaci- 

 ous birds. If the pond be good, and the place not 

 overstocked before, and the fry well-chosen and 

 well preserved, it is almost certain that they will 

 grow within two summers so much as to weigh 

 four, five, and sometimes six pounds, and to be 

 fleshy and well-tasted. A great many Prussian 

 gentlemen make a good profit by selling their carp, 

 after two years standing in the nursery, and export 

 them even to Finland and Russia. The main-ponds 

 are the last kind. In these carp are put that mea- 

 sure a foot, head and tail inclusive. Every square 

 of fifteen feet in the pond is sufficient for one carp, 

 and will afford food and room for the fish to play 

 in. The more room carp have, and consequently 

 the more food the pond affords, the quicker will be 

 the growth of the fish. The longer the pond has 

 been already in use, the longer you intend to keep 

 the carp in it, the more you desire to quicken the 

 growth of them, the more you ought to lessen the 

 number of fish destined for the pond. Spring and 

 autumn are the best seasons for stocking your 

 main-ponds. The growth of your fish will always 



