1146 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



Thus, in the Upper Palatinate, people were, at least till I traveled 

 through that country during last year, in the habit of putting ten and 

 more milters to one spawner. Unfortunately it was also very common 

 to put in the spawning pond other fish of different age. Unless certain 

 conditions are complied with, a large number of spawners will not insure 

 success. 



Provided these conditions are all there, I would, according to my 

 experience, advise .to ]3lace in one spawning pond, for the f>urpose of 

 producing 60,000 young carp, only one spawner and one or two milters, 

 because this is amply sufficient, and, as will be seen from the following, 

 is decidedly better for raising the young fish. If several set of spawners 

 are put in a pond, or many milters to one spawner, it may happen that 

 the fish, regardless of their possible offspring, and eager merely to 

 satisfy their sexual desire, are too vehement in their sexual inter- 

 course, and make the water muddy; and especially in ponds containing 

 refuse from factories, some of this mud may settle on the eggs, pro- 

 duce fungi, and thus destroy them. But if the pond has been carefully 

 selected and prepared for spawning, and if — the weather being favor- 

 able — everything goes on in its regular course, the young carp slip out 

 of the eggs in from four to eight days, so that, as a rule, there will be 

 young fry eight days after the spawners have been jilaced in the pond. 

 The quicker the spawning and hatching is done the better it will be, as 

 even in the seemingly cleanest spawning pond a number of enemies of 

 the spawn and fry spring up as If by magic. The more plentiful and 

 suitable the food which the young fish find in the pond, the quicker 

 and more successfully will they develop and be able to escape from 

 their enemies. If the raisers of fine food-fish would let them grow a 

 little larger and stronger in their establishments, natural and good food, 

 of course, being supplied in abundance, Instead of placing the young 

 fish in open waters when they are still quite tender, and when they are 

 still Impeded in their movements by the umbilical sac, the results of 

 the culture of fine food-fish would soon become evident, and general 

 confidence in artificial fish-culture, which, especially in a flat country, 

 with many lakes and few natural spawning places, will always be of 

 the greatest importance, would soon be restored. 



To protect the young fish better against their enemies is not the only 

 advantage of the new method. It is well known that good and arnple 

 food improves the shape of the fish, makes them broader, and favors 

 the formation of flesh, so as to make the proportion between flesh and 

 bones, *. e., between useful and useless parts, more favorable. More- 

 over, a larger number of fish is produced for the pond area, stronger 

 and (in the future) more productive fish are raised, as I have pointed 

 out in my pamphlet published for the Berlin International Exposition 

 of 1880, and finally, by constantly repeating this method, and by care- 

 fully selecting the very best fish for breeding, a well-formed and rapidly- 

 growing breed of fish will be the result. The finer the kind of fish and 



