34 2 Stocking Ponds. CHAP. xxiv. 



numerous than I had put in. When these fish began to grow in size 

 and multiply, the total weight of the takes increased very much, and 

 this did not take place within the eighteen months, when I took my 

 fish census. 



From the above little story I think I may fairly be allowed to say 

 that my 2 Ibs. weight of fry yielded, after 18 months, 4000 Ibs. weight 

 a year, and in suosequent years yielded at a much greater rate. 



This was the result of careful selection of species, species that 

 would not prey on each other, and that would more or less feed 

 differently. The native fishermen brought me pots full of fry, the 

 majority of them dead as usual, and, pouring them out on the ground, 

 I cast the predaceous ones on one side, and saw them killed, and the 

 desirable sorts I selected with my own hand, and put them into the 

 pond myself. Some people, in stocking a pond, put in any fish the 

 natives recommend for size and flavour. Foremost among their 

 recommendations are the Murral and the Freshwater Shark. As well 

 might you expect to raise a flock of sheep successfully by turning 

 wolves and wild dogs into your fold along with your lambs. 



The first thing to be done in stocking a pond is to be sure you 

 have no predatory fish in it. It is very hard to be sure of this, while 

 there is a drop of water there. The Murral also is one of those fish 

 that can live in the mud of a sun-dried reservoir. It is best, therefore, 

 to dry your pond, and clean it out, using the silt for manure, for good 

 manure it is, and raising a crop in the bed of the reservoir. This 

 cultivation of the bed of the pond should not only consummate the 

 destruction of any fish fry or ova left in the mud, but leave the bottom 

 more full of insect life to form good feeding for fish when the water 

 is turned in. 



Then water turned in should not be brought by a channel from a 

 river, or by overflow from another reservoir, so that fry of all sorts of 

 fish might indiscriminately find their way in. You should be able to 

 be certain that no fish can get into your pond, but such as you select 

 and put there. If your source of water-supply is at all doubtful in these 

 respects, you must be very careful with gratings. 



First, throw in a few water snails to make food for your coming 

 fish ; the small black one, Tamil, Ummachi, is the most common and 

 the most useful. They will soon multiply astoundingly, and the minute 

 young snails, smaller than any pin's head, form excellent food for fry, 



