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PART THE SEVENTH. 



FISH PONDS. 



PONDS should be kept clean, as fish will not thrive in 

 the dark, and among filth. The process is as follows: 

 To take the mantle off the water, lash hits of scorrels, 

 about four feet long, to each other, with spunyarn, 

 length according to the sheet of water; choose con- 

 venient places to take it out ; lash one end to a stake, 

 and the other to the stern of a boat, then shove the boat 

 round as much as you can of the mantle, and have a 

 man with a three-pronged fork to throw it out, as it is 

 driven on shore. To cut weeds from the bottom, collect 

 a number of old scythes, cut the cranks off, and a piece 

 of the points; have them riveted end to end, so that 

 they have liberty to move ; fasten a line to each end. 

 By drawing them to and fro, you may clear the bottom. 

 In stocking ponds, put from three to five spawners 

 to one milter : sixty brace of carp, and forty brace of 

 tench per acre, if a quick stream. Bushy wood should 

 be put into the breeding-ponds, for the spawn to hang 

 upon. When store-ponds are drawn off, make creeps 

 with sods of flot grass, set up leaning to each other, and 

 sow oats in them. If there is another pond to preserve 

 the fish in, let the oats be ripe before you let the water 

 in, then remove the fish back. Select the largest, and 



