VOL. LXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 15Q 



The nurseries are the '2d kind of ponds, intended for bringing up the young 

 fry. The best time to put them into the nursery, is in March or April, on a 

 fine and calm day. A thousand or 12 hundred of this fry may be allotted to 

 each acre of a pond. The choice of the fry must be made according to the above 

 enumerated characters of good and healthy fish, and must be carefully removed 

 from one pond to another. It is likewise requisite to send people with long 

 sticks, all the first day, round the pond, to drive the tender and weak fry from 

 the sides into the pond, because they are bewildered in a strange place, and often 

 become the prey of rapacious birds.* In case the pond be good, and not over- 

 stocked before, and the fry well chosen and preserved, it is almost certain, they 

 will grow within 2 summers so much as to weigh 4, 5, and sometimes 6 

 pounds, and to be fleshy and well-tasteci. Many Prussian gentlemen make a 

 good profit, by selling their carp, after 2 years standing in the nursery, and ex- 

 port them even to Finland and Russia. 



The main ponds are the last kind. In these carp are put that measure a foot 

 head and tail inclusive. Every square of 15 feet in the pond is sufficient for one 

 carp, and will afford food and room for the fish to play in. The more room 

 carp have, and consequently the more food the pond aflxirds, the quicker will be 

 the growth of the fish. The longer the pond has been already in use, the 

 longer you intend to keep the carp in it, the more you desire to quicken the 

 growth of them, the more you ought to lessen the number of fish destined for 

 the pond. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for stocking the main ponds. 

 The growth of the fish will always be in proportion to the food they have ; for 

 carp are observed to grow a long time, and to come to a very considerable size, 

 and a remarkable weight. Mr. F. has seen carp above a yard long, and of 25 

 pounds weight ; but he had no opportunity to ascertain their real age. In the 

 pond at Charlottenburg, a palace belonging to the King of Prussia, he saw more 

 than 2 or 3 hundred carp between 2 and 3 feet long ; and he was told by the 

 keeper, they were between 50 and 6o years standing: they were tame, and came 

 to the shore to be fed ; they swallowed with ease a piece of white bread, of the 

 size of half a halfpenny roll. 



During winter, ponds ought to have their full complement of water ; for the 

 deeper the water is, the warmer lies the fish. In case the pond be covered with 

 ice, every day some holes must be opened, for the admission of fresh air into the 

 pond, for want of which carp frequently perish. In the summer, observe to 

 clean the rails and wire-works in the water-courses, of the weeds and grass, 

 which frequently stop them up. Birds that feed on fish must be carefully kept 



* I have reason to think that the common carrion crow should be added to the list of birds, which 

 Mr. Forsler has before supposed destroy fish when in shallow waters, as I once saw this bird taken 

 by a trap, which was baited with a fish for a heron. D. Bab. — Orig. 



