COMMON CARP. 1Q1 



on poles of sixteen or twenty feet, with a lead 

 fastened to them to keep the scithes on the bottom 

 of the pond, are thrown out, and then again drawn 

 to the person who works with them, and the weeds 

 will be all cut ; after which operation they must be 

 drawn up with long harrows, and set in heaps on 

 the shore for putrefaction, and in length of time, 

 for manure. This cleaning of ponds must never 

 be done in a spawning-pond, where it would be 

 the destruction of thousands of fish. The best/ 

 season for catching such carp as are intended for 

 the market is Autumn. After the pond has been 

 for five or six years in constant use, it is likewise 

 time to let the water entirely off, and clear the 

 pond of the mud, which often increases too much, 

 and becomes a nuisance. When the pond is dry it 

 may be ploughed before the frost sets in, and next 

 spring oats or barley should be sow^n in it, after a 

 new ploughing; and it will repay the trouble to 

 the owner with a rich and plentiful crop. When 

 the loose, superfluous mud is carried- off, out of the 

 pond, care should be taken not to take the soil below 

 the original level of the pond. Some people sow a 

 pond which has been laid for dry some months with 

 oats ; and when they are growing, they fill up the 

 pond with w r ater, and introduce carp for spawning; 

 thinking by this contrivance to procure food for 

 the fish ; as well as an agreeable substance for 

 them to rub themselves against ; but this practice 

 seems to be more noxious than beneficial : for the 

 growing oats will putrefry, and communicate 

 putridity to the water, which can by no means be 



