PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 51 



you trap as soon as caught, if not the others become wary, and the 

 rodents will soon become scarce. We are indebted for the idea of this 

 trap to Charles Sturr, of Preston, Ohio. 



Steel traps placed lengthwise of their holes and slightly concealed 

 will capture them as they go in or come out. Whenever their holes or the 

 entrance to their nest is exposed the following will be found a certain 

 method of extinction. Finely powdered brimstone and saltpetre in the 

 proportion of six pounds of brimstone to one of saltpetre. Use about one 

 pound of the mixture to a hole. Place the mixture on a piece of tin, sheet 

 iron, board or flat stone, place in the hole and light the mixture. After 

 fairly burning close the hole with sods. The saltpetre insures the com- 

 bustion of the brimstone and the fumes will penetrate every minute rami- 

 fication of the nest, assuring death to everything within. 



MINK. 



There is, perhaps, no greater enemy of the carp pond than the mink. 

 It is hardly credible the number of carp that a single mink will destroy in 

 one night. This is particularly true in the winter season, when the pond 

 is covered with ice and the carp are lethargic and dull, if there is any 

 opening through which the mink can go in and out, he will bring the carp 

 out as fast as he can make the trip, and pile them, generally, heads all 

 one way. He nips them usually, in cold weather when he can get the 

 hold he wants, just back of the neck, and the marks left are so fine as to 

 almost need a microscope to see them. The mink is a luxury too ex- 

 pensive for carp ponds. He has, however, a fatal weakness, and almost 

 invariable enters a pond at the same place and in the same way, by slid- 

 ing down the bank ; these tracks lead to his discovery and doom. 

 Set a steel trap on his slide-way, just under the water, where he may slide 

 into it. C. B. Pettie, of Blooming Prairie, Minn., after having all his carp 

 destroyed in a single night in the winter of '87 and '88, by a single mink, 

 caught the fellow in four steel traps. 



TURTLES 



May be caught on large cat-fish hooks baited with chunks of raw meat, 

 too large for the carp to swallow. A few boards placed in the pond for 

 them to sun themselves on, makes them a good mark for the rifle, which 

 is their surest exterminator. 



BIRDS, 



Eagles, herons, cranes, bitterns, rails, marsh hens, owls, fish hawks, 

 wild geese and ducks, and the king fisher, all of these are great fishers; 

 they may be trapped and shot. Perhaps the most inveterate of them all 

 is the king fisher. He may be trapped in numerous ways. We will only 

 give two: First, by driving three or four stakes in the shallow part of the 

 pond, allowing them to project above the water from 4 to 6 feet. On the 

 top of these stakes nail pieces of boards large enougli to hold steel traps; 

 set the traps and fasten them with wires or chains to the stakes. The 

 birds alight to watch for food and are caught. Second, fix a dead fish 

 from 2 to 4 inches long in a natural position on a piece of board 8 inches 



