PRACTICAL CARP CULTURE. 129 



No. 3 19 " 4 " 8 ounces 



No. 4 20 " 5 " 8 " 



No. 5 20 " - 4 " 12 " 



No. 6 20 " 4 " 8 " 



No. 7 19 " 4 " 4 



No. 8 22 " 6 " 8 



No. 9 (scale) 20 " 5 " 4 



No. 10 21 " 6 " 8 " 



No. 11 22 " 6 " 12 " 



No. 12 22 " 6 u 



No. 13 20 u 5 " 8 u 



Tuesday, June 22, I caught four mirror and two scale carp, measuring 

 two inches each. Thursday, July 22, I caught carp measuring 3> inches, 

 and there are thousands in the pond. Wednesday, November 17, 1886, 

 my dam broke, gophers having riddled it, causing the break. I lost 

 many fish, for it ran four out of seven feet of water I had into the river. 

 I again put it up, and I am, at this date, nearly overstocked with young 

 carp. 1 have sold as many as 40 pounds in a day, at 10 cents, on the mar- 

 ket, and they are a most excellent pan fish, and pronounced by true con- 

 noisseurs as equal to the celebrated croakers of Lake Ponchartaain, La. 

 My task has not been a light one, I assure you, for I caught and killed 

 with my own hands to December 31, 1887: Injurious water fowls, 152; 

 alligators, 3 ; mink, 1 ; large frogs and lampney eels, 51 ; turtles, 198 ; 

 snakes, 403; total, 808. My pond varies in depth from one inch to seven 

 feet, which last depth covers fully four acres in area; the rest is gently 

 sloping on the west and north sides and deep on the east and south. The 

 bottom is muck, not boggy, and not a particle of vegetation in the pond 

 this year. I have fed slaughter-house offal more than of anything else, 

 and I find them fond of it. 



I omitted to mention that during the freeze of the 15th and 18th insts. 

 I lost about 1,000 young carp that happened to be on the shallow borders 

 and the sudden change caught them and they perished in the ice, not one 

 of them being over five inches long. The pond is only supplied by rain- 

 fall. The water is as good as from a cistern, being used by some neigh- 

 bors for culinary purposes and for drinking. 



These few extracts are taken from my diary on carp culture. 



J. ERNEST BREDA. 



