Lffow to obtain it. 79 
enough merely to make a pond, and put fish therein and expect 
them to grow. It would be just as reasonable to fence in a piece 
of moor, turn down a lot of lambs, and without any further 
trouble, expect to receive in return a good crop of mutton. 
Practically, however, this is the way in which fish culture has 
often been attempted, and the result has been taken as a fair 
average of its value. Properly cultivated water will yield excellent 
results, but unless the right conditions exist, it is as impracticable 
to obtain them as is the case with badly cultivated land. 
Take the case already referred to of a pond that has been 
neglected for many years, and that has in consequence become 
filled with weeds and mud. The first thing to be done is to clean 
it out, and having done this, to set about preparing the bottom for 
future use. The treatment necessarily varies according to cir- 
cumstances. It should remain empty for at least a year, and 
during that time care should be taken that all noxious weeds are 
destroyed. The bottom should be cultivated. As soon as the 
soil of which it is composed is dry enough, plough it by all means, 
if it be at all practicable to do so. In a great many cases this 
can be done to a considerable extent. There may be places 
which remain soft and watery, and others where the bottom is too 
uneven or stony, but these tracts can be avoided, and may be 
cultivated in some other way afterwards. Wherever there is a 
spot that remains wet and soft, it should be drained by means of 
an open gutter, which can easily be filled up again if desired 
before the refilling of the pond takes place. Parts that cannot be 
reached by the plough should be turned over somehow, and the 
whole of the pond bottom should be harrowed as soon as the 
dryness of the soil will admit of it. Places should be marked 
that are by nature the best adapted for making beds, for the 
planting of the necessary future crop of vegetation. These beds 
should be prepared by carting on to them a few loads of suitable 
soil. This soil should not be taken from a tract of wet or boggy 
land, but from a dry corner somewhere. It should, if practicable, 
be of a different nature from that which forms the pond bottom, 
and the two may with advantage be amalgamated by digging. 
Where this soil is of poor quality it should be improved by some 
well-rotted stable manure, which may be dug or ploughed into it. 
