XXXVII -POND CULTURE-THE FOOD AND SPAWNING OF OARP/ 



By Adolph Gasch. 



CONTENTS. 



Pap;a 



Evidences of former pond culture 1 



Eesults of the old metliod 1 



Present improved methods 2 



Spawning — especially of carp — in ponds, &c 2 



Theory of imjpregnation 2 



Spawning once or twicei a year 3 



Late spawning — why 3 



Number of spawners and milters 3 



Time for hatching 4 



Protecting young fish 4 



Food for young fish (carp) 4 



Pond farm under old method in Bohemia 5 



Kinds of food , 5 



Objections to artificial fish-food, animalcules, &c 5 



Appeal to scientists for aid in this matter G 



Frog spawn as fish-food 



Frogs in fish ponds *) 



Profit from fish ponds 7 



Effect of more pond area on droughts, &c - 7 



In traveling through Central Europe the tourist frequently sees dikes 

 in the gentle valleys of those regions, some of these dikes being well 

 preserved and even covered with old trees,' others very much damaged, 

 occasionally plowed and cultivated like the flat pond area back of them. 

 Pond culture must therefore have been carried on more extensively in 

 former times, and a larger area must have been covered with water. 

 Many ponds have been laid dry in the hope— justified in the begin- 

 ning — of obtaining a larger income from agriculture, and the primitive 

 way of treating ponds and fish was certainly not encouraging to pond 

 farming. 



Under the so-called " old method," unfortunately still employed in 

 many places, it was customary during the first warm days of spring, as 

 early as possible, to place several spawning carp m flat, sunny ponds; 

 and if the weather was favorable, a number of very small carp, meas- 



•- Beitrage zur Fischsucht und Teichivirthschaft. From the Deutsche Fisclierei-Zeltitnrj, 

 Vol. YI, Nos. 49, 51, and 52. Translated fram the German by Herman Jacobson. 



[1] :ii43 



