PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 123 



one and one-half to two ounces. That is the difference of being in spring 

 water and warm pond water with mud clay bottom for six weeks during 

 the growing season. Where the pipes came out in the ponds about 18 

 inches under the water I put an elbow to throw the current up against 

 the ice, aod it kept an air hole most of the time. Toward spring I made 

 a box three feet high on north side, and one foot high on south side, six 

 feet square, covered with glass, and set over the hole. It helped very 

 much. Would be better to put a shed roof on and close up west and east 

 sides. I am getting some spawners the first of May. Last fall I plowed 

 and scraped two days to make a little pond for them, fenced it, and am 

 scattering shelled corn around the edges for the hogs. As the wind mill 

 pumps the water in it is very muddy, but by letting it stand two weeks it 

 will be fit to put the fish in, and w r on't rye straw be good to receive the 

 eggs. 



I kept two fish in the house this winter to watch their movements. 

 They were in a glass box 14 by 28 inches, 6 inches deep of water. At first 

 the water had to be changed every two days, but later in the season not so 

 often, and once it w r as not changed for five weeks. They would stay in 

 one corner with their heads together for days, unless disturbed, and 

 hardly move a fin. When the water was changed they would be quite 

 lively for a few days, and would eat a little but did not grow any. 



H. P. EDMONDS. 



CARP ARE CANNIBALS. 



ROSEHILL, TENN., December 20, 1886. 



1 see in speaking of the draining of Mr. Ritchie's pond, on the 15th 

 of November, you are at a loss to account for the greater percentage of 

 scale over mirror carp. Precisely the same thing has occurred to me for 

 two years past, and I account for the difference of increase in my water in 

 this way. The scale carp is a more active fish than the mirror or leather, 

 and in the spawning season the scale milter vivifies a much larger per- 

 centage of spawn than the others, which will account for the difference in 

 part. But there is another reason for the difference, much more potent, 

 in my judgment, than this. The pure scale carp in my water has upset 

 all the received theories as to its non-flesh-eating habits, and demonstrated 

 to my entire satisfaction that it is, in fact, as well as in theory, a fish. If 

 that be so, it is not so different from other fish, as some men imagined, 

 but may be a less ravenous cannibal than many other varieties. It is abso- 

 lutely certain that my scale carp devour spawn very greedily, "and I have 

 seen them "in the very act" so often during the past three years, I do not 

 expect much increase if the eggs are not removed. That they also eat the 

 young fish when permitted to remain in the water among them is abso- 

 lutely indisputable, for I have observed it too often to be mistaken. 

 Closely concealed within a few feet of the fish, I have repeatedly observed 

 three and four year old carp float to the top of the water, and hold their 



