PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 75 



of albumen, allowing the carbohydrates to be in excess. 



Farmers, who constitute the general culturists of this country, cannot 

 afford to enter into lengthy calculations of combinations to secure these pro- 

 portions, but must make the best use of the material at hand. So to aid 

 him in this we will present a few combinations that will serve the purpose 

 with the least waste. 



The great desideratum in artificial food is the albumen. The fish will 

 find the carbohydrates in the pond. Though there is little food except 

 meet that does not contain the carbohydrates, and that contains fat which 

 answers a similar purpose. 



First. The flesh of any kind of dead animals, birds, fish, frogs, etc., 

 may be utilized and will contain about the right percent of nutritive sub- 

 stances. They should be chopped up fine before being fed. 



Second. Fresh blood mixed with any of the following substances in a 

 proportion of five pounds of blood to one pound of the other matter. 

 Flour, wheat bran, ground oats, barley meal, corn meal, linseed meal, 

 ground pean and beans, (these two latter contain each about 25 per cent of 

 albumen,) making the preparation thick enough to form balls or cakes, 

 which place in about ten inches of water, where the sun strikes. 



Third. The flesh of animals above mentioned may be mixed with the 

 cereal products named in the second preparation, and boiled potatoes in 

 the proportion of five pounds of the flesh to one pound each of the pota- 

 toes and the cereal selected. In this case they should be thoroughly mixed 

 and incorporated each with the other, and about one pound of coarse salt 

 added to each fifteen pounds of the mixture. 



These two last preparations may be preserved by mixing finely pul- 

 verized clay or loam soil with them, spreading them a half to three-quar- 

 ters of an inch thick on a level surface, and cutting into cubes about one- 

 half inch square, and letting them dry in the sun. 



FOOD FOR YOUNG FRY. 



Fourth. The umbilical sack or yolk bag, with which the young carp 

 come into the world, supplies their nourishment for four or five days. 

 Then they need food and begin and unlearned search for it. A supply of 

 the right kind of food at this stage of their existence is particularly im- 

 portant in preserving many of them from starvation.. It may be a very 

 simple material, dry bread finely crumbed, or pulverized crackers, or even 

 dry bran or shorts scattered along the edge of the water on the grass and 

 vegetation of the pond. A better preparation may be composed of worms, 

 snails, the brains of animals, ground or chopped up fine and mixed with 

 flour or equal parts of flour and soft cooked potatoes, and thoroughly mixed 

 and incorporated with each other. It will keep in a cool place for a week, 

 and small portions of it can be fed daily. It should be pulverized into 

 small particles for feeding. This can be accomplished by drying in the 

 sun or in an oven, and forcing through a coarse seive or fine meshed screen. 

 A half pound of this mixture each day will supply thousands of young fish 

 the second week of their existence, and each succeeding week, they need 



