THE CARP. 127 



Observations on carp-ponds. 



twelve females. The usual growth of a carp is 

 <o two or three inches in length in a year; but 

 in ponds which receive the fattening of common 

 sewers, they have been known to grow from five 

 inches to eighteen in one year. A feeding-pond 

 of one acre extent will very well feed three hun- 

 dred carp of three years old, three hundred of 

 two years, and four hundred of one year old. 

 Carp delight chiefly in ponds that have marley 

 sides ; they love also clay-ponds well sheltered 

 from the winds, and grown with weeds and long 

 grass at the edges, which they feed upon in the 

 hot months. Carp and tench thrive very fast in 

 ponds and rivers near the sea, where the water is 

 a little brackish ; but they are not so well tasted 

 as those which live in fresh water. Grains, blood, 

 chicken-guts, and the like, may at times be 

 thrown into carp-ponds, to help to fatten the 

 fish. To make them grow large and fat, the 

 growth of grass under the water should by all 

 possible means be encouraged. For this pur- 

 pose, as the water decreases in the summer, the 

 sides of the pond left naked and dry, should be 

 well raked with an iron rake to destroy all the 

 weeds, and cut up the surface of the earth : hav- 

 geed should then be sown plentifully in these 

 places; and more ground prepared in the same 

 manner, as the water fails more and more awav. 

 By this means there will be a fine and plentiful 

 growth of young grass along the sides of the 

 pond to the water's edge; and when the rain? 



