488 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



can be made in beef and pork from ten acres, and with much less labor. The 

 first thing to be determined is the kind of fish to raise. 



Several of our native fishes will bear domestication well. None of our 

 fishes are migratory, and would stay in artificial ponds very well unless they 

 are flooded, at which time the fish would run off and could probably not get 

 back. 



In the clear pools that are made from springs several of our native fishes 

 would do excellently, and it is not advisable to try to raise more than one 

 kind of fish in the same pond. The suckers are a fish that bear domestica- 

 tion well and are easily kept, and the flesh is of good quality, but they are 

 not desirable on account of the great number of small bones they have. 



The catfish do well and only need a small amount of running water; or 

 where the pool is fed by a running stream, the striped bass would do finely. 

 They are the best of all our native fishes, but they multiply very slowly. Al- 

 though a bass at a single spawning will produce one thousand young, and 

 will guard her nest with the utmost care for a period of six weeks, yet after 

 that time she has no regard for her own young and will devour a great many 

 of them. 



It is probably better after all to raise the German carp, as they are vegeta- 

 reous and will live and prosper in almost any kind of water. They can live 

 in a small quantity of water. They have been known to live and do well in 

 a pond so low that their dorsal fins remained out of the water; but this ought 

 not to be allowed by those attempting to make a success of fish culture. 



This fish prefers a warm temperature and a muddy bottom. They are 

 vegetareous, and the ponds should be supplied with aquatic plants. They 

 will also eat the refuse from the kitchen. I asked a gentleman what a carp 

 would eat, and his reply was, "Anything that a pig will eat." They grow to 

 the size of eight or ten inches in length in a year if well fed, and they con- 

 tinue their growth until three or four years old and attain a weight of eight 

 or ten pounds. 



The pond for carp may be supplied from surface drainage. The pond will 

 be better if it has broad, shallow margins where water grasses and weeds 

 grow. 



There are a great many tanks built for supplying stock water that would 

 make good pools for carp raising. Care should be taken that the water does 

 not all dry out and the fish be destroyed. This could be remedied by having 

 a deep hole sunk in the middle of the tank that would be inaccessible to the 

 stock and into which the fish could retreat when all other parts of the pond 

 are dry. It is better if one can have a windmill to supply water from a well 

 where there is danger of the water being exhausted during drouths. 



The carp become very gentle and can be taught to come near the margin 



