l60 PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS.- [aNNO 1771. 



out of the ponds. In a great drought, provision ought to be made, to keep the 

 water at the same height as it commonly stands in the pond, i. e. between 4 and 

 and 5 feet. If the water stagnate and grow putrid, it must be let off, and a 

 supply of fresh water be introduced from the reservoirs. If the weeds, especially 

 reed and flags, and some of the aquatic grasses, over-run too much the pond, 

 scythes fixed on poles of 1 6 or 20 feet, with a lead fastened to them to keep thr 

 scythes on the bottom of the pond, are thrown out, and then again drawn to 

 the person that works with them, by which the weeds will all be cut; after which 

 operation, they must be drawn up by long harrows, and laid in heaps on the 

 shore for putrefaction, and in length of time, for manure. This cleaning of 

 ponds must never be done in a spawning-pond, where it would be the destruc- 

 tion of thousands of fish. 



Autumn is the best season for catching such carp as are intended for the 

 market. After the pond has been for 5 or years in constant use, it is likewise 

 time to let the water entirely off, and clear the pond of the mud, which often 

 increases too much, and becomes a nuisance. When the pond is dry, it may 

 be ploughed before the frost sets in, and next spring oats or barley should be 

 sown in it, after a new ploughing; and it will repay the trouble to the owner 

 with a rich and plentiful crop. When the loose superfluous mud is carried off 

 out of the pond, care ought to be taken not to take the soil below the original 

 level of the pond. Some people sow a pond, which has been laid dry for some 

 months, with oats; and when growing, they fill the pond with water, and in- 

 troduce carp for spawning, and think, by this contrivance, to procure food for 

 the fish and something to rub their bellies against. But this practice seems to 

 be more noxious than beneficial ; for the growing oats will putrefy, and com- 

 municate putridity to the water, which can by no means be salutary to the fish. 



The epicures sometimes feed carp, during the colder season, in a cellar. The 

 following method is the best that can be observed for that purpose. A carp is 

 laid on a great quantity of wet moss, spread on a piece of net, which then is 

 gathered into a purse, and the moss so contrived, that the whole fish is entirely 

 wrapt up in it : however, care must be taken to give the fish ease, and not to 

 squeeze it, so that it may have room to breathe in this confined attitude. The 

 net with the fish and moss is then plunged into water and hung up to the ceiling 

 of the cellar. In the beginning, this operation must be very frequently re- 

 peated, at least every 3 or 4 hours ; by length of time the fish will be more used 

 to the new element, and will bear to be out of water for 6 or 7 hours.* Its 



• It is known to every one that a carp will live a great while out of water; but perhaps it may not 

 be so notorious, that the keeping him several hours in the common air, without any precaution'!, 

 may be r.peaied from day to day, without any apparent inconvenience to the fish. There is a fish- 

 mot)ger near Clare-market, who in the winter exposes for sale a bushel at least of carp and tench. 



