106 CAEP-BEEEDIN6. 



particular as to this, and ascertain if the fish they have bought 

 have been tempered. 



Eetuming to the common carp, I can speak of it as being 

 a most useful pond-fish. It is a vegetarian, and may be classed 

 among the least . carnivorous fishes ; it feeds chiefly upon vege- 

 tables or decaying organic matter, and very few of them prey 

 upon their kind, while some, it is thought, pass the winter in a 

 torpid state. There is a rhyme which tells us that 



Turkeys, carp, hops, pickerel, and beer, 

 Came into England all in one year. 



But this couplet must, I think, be wrong, as some of these 

 items were in use long before the carp was known; indeed, it 

 is not at all certain when this fish was first introduced into 

 England, or where it was brought from, but I think it ex- 

 tremely possible that it was originally brought here from 

 Germany. In ancient times there used to be immense ponds 

 filled with carp in Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Mecklenburg, and 

 Holstein, and the fish was bred and brought to market with as 

 much regularity as if it had been a fruit or a vegetable. The 

 carp yields its spawn in great quantities, no fewer than 700,000 

 eggs having been found in a fish of moderate weight (ten 

 pounds); and, being a hardy fish, it is easily cultivated, so 

 that it would be profitable to breed in ponds for the fishmarkets 

 of populous places, and the fish-salesmen assure us that there 

 would be a large demand for good fresh carp. It is necessary, 

 according to the best authorities, to have the ponds in suites of 

 three — viz. a spawning-pond, a nursery, and a receptacle for 

 the large fish — and to regulate the numbers of breeding fish 

 according to the surface of water. It is not my intention to go 

 minutely into the construction of carp-ponds; but I may be 

 allowed to say that it is always best to select such a spot for 

 their site as will give the engineer as little trouble as possible. 

 Twelve acres of water divided into three parts would aUow a 

 splendid series of ponds — the first to be three acres in extent, 

 the second an acre more, and the third to be five acres ; and 

 here it may be again observed that, with water as with land, a 

 given space can only yield a given amount of produce, therefore 

 the ponds must not be overstocked with brood. Two hundred 

 carp, twenty tench, and twenty jack per acre is an ample stock 

 to begin breeding with. A very profitable annual return would 

 be obtained from these twelve acres of water; and, as many 



