116 PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 



winter ( ?) before they were weighed, if so the test was not a fair one, as 

 they should have been weighed just before they stopped for the winter. 

 Did the weighing stop their growth? or did they continue to grow during 

 December? Let us take them where we find them and leave them there 

 until the 1st of April, 1886, when we start them out on their way at the 

 old ratio of development, without an increase of the ratio, and on Decem- 

 ber "15," at 18 months of age, one of the fish weighs 46 ounces and the 

 other 43 ounces. These will be the minimum weights, and they do not do 

 the fish justice. And yet they cannot but be satisfactory to carp raisers. 



SEASON OF SPAWNING, TEMPERATURE OF WATER, AND 

 LENGTH OF TIME REQUIRED FOR EGGS TO HATCH IN 

 DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES, ETC. 



NEW PORT TRACEY, O., July 8, 1885. 



I will give my mode of gathering eggs for the hatching lake. I first 

 build the lake; I make it twelve feet by twelve feet, about 2 feet deep in 

 the center, and the shape of a basin; construct it near the large lake or 

 some place where it can be fed by warm fresh water. I have no outlet or 

 waste way. I only feed it with water just as fast as it soaks away. I plank 

 it up on all sides tight, so that no snakes, frogs or turtles can get in. Now 

 I set sods around the edge of the large lake, from ten to twelve inches 

 square, the grass being from six to eight inches high. When the spawn- 

 ing season comes I watch early in the morning for the spawning ; I gather 

 the eggs in the evening, lifting the sods carefully with a fork and setting 

 them in the hatching lake the same depth that they were in the large lake 



W. H. WESTHAFER. 



PARK RIDGE, Ills., May 12, 1886. 



Having just completed an experiment instituted t > determine how 

 long it takes carp eggs to hatch, I herewith send you the result. On Wed- 

 nesday last, May 5th, my carp began spawning for the season. On Friday 

 last, on my return to the ponds, I made search for eggd and found them in 

 abundance on hornwort (Ceratophyllum) . I selected sprays with eggs ad- 

 hering in all forty and put them in an ordinary fruit jar, placing the 

 jar in the pond so that the surrounding water would reach within an inch 

 of the top. This I have examined morning and evening of each day since. 

 It had been quite warm last week, and on Friday I found the temperature 

 of the water to be 64 deg. Farh., while the atmosphere in the shade was 

 62 deg. Friday a northeast storm set in, and since then the weather has 

 been cloudy or foggy most of the time, with but little sun shining. Dur- 

 ing most of this time the thermometer has varied from 50 to 56 deg. in the 

 shade, while the water has fallen to 57 deg. Farh. This morning the first 

 little fish made its appearance, just five days after the eggs were put in the 

 jar, and seven days after they were cast. More unfavorable weather could 



