72 ART OF ANGLING. 



aquatic fowl, wild and tame, to the pond ; for geese 

 and ducks not only swallow the spawn, but destroy 

 still more by searching among the weeds and water 

 plants. 



The young fry being hatched from the spawn by 

 the influence of the sun, they are left the whole 

 summer, and even the next winter, in the spawning 

 pond, in case it be so deep that the suffocation of 

 the young tender fry under the ice in a severe 

 winter, is not to be apprehended. If, however, the 

 shallowness of the pond, or its cold situation render 

 it necessary to secure the fry against the rigors of 

 the ensuing winter, the water of the pond must be 

 let off, in which case, the fry and old fish will 

 gradually retire to the ditches which communicate 

 with the hole in the middle of the pond, and a net 

 with small meshes, is then employed to catch both 

 the fry and the old ones. The old breeders are 

 then to be separated from the fry and put into 

 separate ponds that are warmer; this should be 

 done in a calm mild clay at the latter end of Sep- 

 tember. The nursery is the second kind of pond 

 intended for the bringing up of the young fry ; the 

 best time to put them into the nursery is in March 

 or April ; a thousand or twelve hundred of these fry 

 may be allotted to each acre of a pond; and if the 

 water and soil agree with them, it is almost certain 



