204 
CARP. 
season ; and often the expectations of many years 
are in a few hours swept away. 
It is found by experience most convenient to have 
three kinds of ponds for carp ; the first is called the 
spawning-pond, the second the nursery, and the 
third, or largest, the main-pond. There are two 
methods of stocking the ponds with carp ; either to 
buy a few old fish, and to put them into the spawn- 
ing-pond, or to purchase a good quantity of one- 
year old fry for the nursery. A pond intended for 
spawning must be well cleared of all other kinds of 
fish, especially such as are of a rapacious nature, 
as well as of newts, or larvae of lizards and of water- 
beetles, which frequently destroy quantities of the 
fry to the great loss of the owner. A pond of the 
size of about one acre requires three or four male 
carp, and about six or eight females. The best 
carp for breeders are five, six, or seven years old, 
in good health, in full scale, and without any ble- 
mish or wound ; such as are sickly and move slowly 
in the water, have spots as if they had the small 
pox, have either lost their scales, or have them 
sticking but loosely to the body ; whose eyes lie 
deep in their heads, are short, deep, and lean, will 
never produce a good breed. Being provided with a 
set of carp such as are here described, and sufficient 
to stock a pond with ; it is best to put them on a 
fine calm day, the latter end of March, or in April, 
into the spawning-pond, where they will spawn in 
May, June, or July, according as the warm season 
sets in earlier or later. At this season they swim 
