22 PRACTICAL CARP OTTLTURE. 



direct. The advantages of these ponds are constancy of water supply 

 summer and winter and high temperature of water in winter, usually 

 keeping some surface of the pond in the immediate vicinity of the springs 

 clear of ice, affording oxygen to the fish and permitting the escape of any 

 poisonous gases generated by decomposing vegetable matter in the bot- 

 tom of the pond. The disadvantages are lower temperature of water in 

 summer time and very small supply of food carried by the water to the 

 pond. 



The best water for carp ponds is that furnished by running strpancs. 

 It is aerated, heated, and carries food for the fish. The best sites for 

 ponds are along the courses of such streams or by the feeders of mi'ls, 

 below the basins of canals, etc. The sites for ponds will naturally sug- 

 gest themselves whenever they meet the eye. Nor is it within the prov- 

 ince of this chapter either to indicate them all or to furnish plans for the 

 construction of the various embankments and dams necessary to the 

 varied character of the sites. Some locations need but a dam, others 

 need banks on two or even three sides. The principle of construction, 

 however, is th.3 same. 



I>ABS AND 



The difficulty of repairing a dam. makes it necessary to build it well in 

 the start-out. Stake out the line of the embankments, determine their 

 height and allow ten per cent for shrinkage; make the base three times 

 the height. Thsn, in the center of the base, cut a ditch three to live feet 

 wide down through the surface-soil to a sub-stratum of the earth that will 

 hold water ; extend this ditch out under the shoulders of the dam. Throw 

 the material taken from the ditch to the outer side. This ditch must then 

 be filled with loam (a small per cent, of sand, a large per cent, of clay) or 

 good plastic clay. The filling should be done in layers of six to twelve 

 inches each, each layer carefully spread and thoroughly tamped. It will 

 pack better if wet, even to the point of puddling. When the ditch is full, 

 the dam spreads out to its limits, and is continued on up in layers just as 

 in the ditch. If the banks are to be built from material taken from the 

 bottom of the pond, which is the most economical plan, and if the material 

 is fit, put the surface soil on the outer side of the dam, and the next 

 inferior soil on the inside, placing the very best of your darn-making 

 material in the center of the embankment, continuing it on up over the 

 lines of the ditch to the top of the dam, carefully tamping and packing 

 every stratum as it is laid on ; removing all stones, sticks, sods and other 

 debris. The dam should be as wide on the top as its height above the 

 ditch. The slope of the sides will then be at an angle of 45 degrees. The 

 rich surface soil on the outer side leaves it in good shape to sod or seed 

 with blue grass. This will add to its beauty, and prevent furrowing or 

 washing with the rains. Dams improve with age. To protect them 

 against depredations by muskrats, build them only about 12 or 15 inches 



