112 PRACTICAL, CARP CULTURE. 



clear ice ten inches thick, and frozen within a few inches of the bottom, 

 a large carp which darted away like an arrow at my approach. The old 

 theory of universal hibernation being thus disproven, we must have some 

 other to accommodate those feliows who see their sleepy (?) fish shooting 

 around in the winter time. All animal life requires is oxygen for support. 

 If the supply of oxygen is scant the animal becomes torpid, sluggish. 

 Precisely so with the carp. If a pond has a running stream supplying it, 

 a given number of carp (depending on the amount of flow), will get enough 

 oxygen to keep up a normal circulation, and, consequently, will not hiber- 

 nate, and will probably take food. If a pond is pretty well stocked with 

 carp and covered with ice, no doubt the fish will hibernate, unless the in- 

 flow of fresh water is very large. One other thing I have had my doubts 

 about. Hessel, and in fact nearly all writers on carp, emphasize the state- 

 ment that warm water is absolutely essential to carp culture. I suspect 

 that this conclusion is empirical rather than logical. If so, it may mis- 

 lead some who would like to raise a few carp for pleasure, or for the family 

 table, but who have at hand only facilities for a cold water pond. Concede 

 that warm water is essential to natural growth, it seems tome that it does 

 not follow that carp fed liberally require it. Cold water would produce 

 little or no food, warm water the greatest possible amount. As far as I am 

 concerned this lacks proof. I simply set it up as a theory to be knocked 

 down by those better informed than myself. S. W. COLTON. 



COME AT THE SOUND OF A BELL. 



CHILLICOTHE, O., February 22, 1888. 



My carp do not go into the mud. When filling my ice house I cut a 

 hole at one corner of the pond, over the deep water. Then rang my bell 

 as I did in the summer time, and they came by the hundreds. I have lost 

 no fish this winter. W. A. PURSEL. 



GROWTH OF CARP. 



FOURTEEN WEEKS OLD, MEASURES 10% INCHES. 



ST. JOSEPH, Mo., September 12, 1885. 



Sir, I have read a great many items in your journal on the rapid growth 

 of the carp, but the growth of the carp at the hatchery will exceed any- 

 thing that I saw in the Journal. I took eight carp to the St. Joseph fair, 

 three months and seven days old, averaging from seven to ten and three- 

 fourths inches, and took a twenty-dollar premium. I find that clabbered 

 milk is one of the best things for food for young carp. They will grow 

 and thrive faster on it than anything else you can feed them. 



ELIAS CATTRILL, 

 Sup't State Hatchery, St. Joseph, Mo. 



CLARENDON, Tex., March 2, 1886. 

 In February, 1885, I put into my pond fourteen scale carp, from four 



