breeder is to devise ways and means to insure an abundance of such food. To this end special 

 waters must be available for the collection and retention of such creatures, and special efforts must 

 be made to encourage their growth in the goldfish ponds. 



The most striking feature of goldfish culture as practiced by the Koriyama school is the great 

 amount of effort and time devoted to the collection and artificial production of crustacean food. 

 This subject of course receives attention at Tokyo and elsewhere, but is less characteristic and in 

 general much less elaborately worked out than at Koriyama. 



The simplest method of providing these small crustaceans is to collect them in open waters — 

 reservoirs, ditches, ponds, streams — if the culturist has convenient access to such. The usual col- 

 lecting grounds are the reservoirs for the irrigation of rice fields, in which the conditions are 

 very favorable for the existence of these creatures. Many are produced also in the mud ponds. 



The enterprising breeders, however, do not depend on the natural growth of "mijinko," but 

 resort to artificial measures for maintaining a constant supply. This work is scarcely less note- 

 worthy than the cultivation of the goldfish themselves, and is perhaps the most remarkable feature 

 of this industry, for the Japanese have gone far ahead of other people in this important branch, 

 As Professor Alitsvikuri has said, "the Japanese goldfish breeders have the knack of producing 

 these water fleas in any quantity they need at any time they like." 



The essential point in the cultivation of "mijinko" is the fertilization of the pond, so that 

 the growth of the minute animals and plants that serve as the immediate or the ultimate food of 

 the crustaceans may be greatly stimulated. Given an abundant food supply, the little crustaceans 

 will multiply with astonishing rapidity and soon acquire a bulk which in the aggregate is very 

 considerable. There are several ways of fertilizing the mud ponds. Reference has already been 



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