333 
AMERICAN ACRICULTURIST, 
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Fig. 1.—THE GOLBEN CARP- OR GOLB-PISH—NATURAL SIZE. 
again taken, when the remaining lines now 
standing 4 feet apart will again meet. I had about 
an acre of Thyme treated by this process, in 
the fall of 1864, that sold for over $3000,—but 
this was an exceptional case, the crop was unu¬ 
sually fine, and prices at that time were nearly 
double the usual. As before stated, the average 
yield is about $500 per acre. Herbs are always 
a safe crop for the market gardener, they are 
less perishable than any thing else grown, as if 
there be any interruption to their sale in a green 
state, they can be dried and boxed up and sold 
in the dry state, mouths after, if necessary. The 
usual price is from $10 to $15 per 1000 bunches, 
and we always prefer to dry them rather than 
sell lower than $10 per 1000, experience telling 
us that the market will usually so regulate itself 
as to handsomely pay for holding back the sale. 
The cost of getting the crop raised and market¬ 
ed will average about $150 per acre, the princi¬ 
ple expense being in tying it in bunches. But 
with many of our industrious German gardeners 
it does not cost half that, as tying up is usually 
done by their wives or children in the evenings; 
a pleasant as well a^ profitable occupation. 
. . « H. - 1 tc ■ 
The Cirolden Carp, or Gold-fish. 
(Cyprinus auratus.) 
There are few fish which may be properly 
classed among the domestic animals of this 
country, but the Gold-fish is unquestionably one. 
True, it escapes from confinement and regains 
its wild habits, but it is universally known in a 
condition of entire domestication as the denizen 
of fountains, fresh water pools, and fish ponds, 
and of the globes and aquariums which orna¬ 
ment our dwellings. In the globes we see usu¬ 
ally only the golden fish, with those spotted 
more or less with dark blotches and white, but 
in the ponds where they breed, almost all tints 
of sliver, bronze, and purple, are seen, besides the 
orange and golden colors which give the fish its 
name and value. These colors are more or less 
dependent upon age, while the size of the fish 
at any particular age bears more direct rela¬ 
tion to the quantity and quality of their food. 
These beautiful fish are natives of China, 
where they are very common in domestication, 
but they will live and thrive in the fresh waters 
of every temperate latitude. They bear the heat 
of our summer and the cold of winter perfectly 
well, being often frozen into the solid masses of 
ice which fill the shallow basins where they are 
kept, but we presume this is detrimental to them. 
They do not object to clear limpid water, but 
seem to prefer that which is roiled and muddy, 
filled with infusorial plants and animals upon 
which they feed. In such waters they multiply 
rapidly, breeding twice, or several times, in the 
season. The young, hatched from eggs laid 
among the grass and weeds along the warm 
edges of the ponds, are at first of a dark bronze 
color, inclining to olive, and do not gain their 
true coiors till they attain considerable maturity. 
From their conspicuousness they are a prey to 
ravenous fish, and their rapid increase is check¬ 
ed, but they are themselves perfectly harmless. 
The Gold-fish belongs to the genus Cyprinus, 
to which also the Carp of Europe, G. carpio 
belongs. The fiesh of the Gold-fish is edible, 
but not very good, yet the dark kinds are fre¬ 
quently eaten by persons unsuspicious that they 
are eating Gold-fish. The size which these fish 
attain, if they have food enough, is about that 
of the specimen so well represented in fig. 1, 
though this is not unusually large. If, however, 
they are kept on short commons, as in globes 
where they are seldom fed, they will remain an 
inch and a half or two inches in length for a 
long time. Domestication seems to disturb the 
balance of nature not only in color, but in shape. 
Fish with two or three tails, or with split or. 
double fins are common, and so also are those 
deformed by the loss of important fins, as in 
outlines shown in figures 3 and 3. 
There is at all times a ready market for Gold- . 
fish in the cities, the price varying with the sup¬ 
ply and demand. A few few years since they 
sold at $3, or $4 to $8 per hundred, and retailed 
at 10c. to 15c. each; at present, however, the 
price is higher and they sell for $15 to $30 per 
hundred, or from 35c. to 75c. a piece, the cost be¬ 
ing regulated by the perfection of the fish in 
health, coloring, size, etc. The smaller sizes 
being the favorites. No fish is more easily bred; 
any pond which does not go dry, if a pair are 
introduced, will swarm with them after a few 
years. They are easily transported in winter, 
siinjily in rvater changed once in a few days, 
and in summer, in water kept cold with ice. 
In China they are said to grow to be a foot or 
more in length, and to live 50 years. They were 
probably first brought to Europe by the Por¬ 
tuguese, and after their introduction as a great 
curiosity into the ornamental waters at Versail¬ 
les, near Paris, which was about 1700, they be¬ 
came before long common all over Europe. 
The ease with which they may be tamed adds 
greatly to the interest of keeping them. The 
fish soon learn to come to a call, or to the 
sound of a bell, or to blows upon the water, and 
will eat from the hand, allow themselves to be 
taken out of water, etc. We need hardly sug¬ 
gest to our readers a practicable application of 
the facts we have stated. Notwithstanding they 
are so common, the demand for them falls far 
short of the supply. Many a pond might be 
made to yield a very pretty income in the course 
of a few years, provided only the present fash¬ 
ion of fish globes continues, as it is likely to. 
Small gold fish may be secured by catching the 
young fry and confining them a year or less in 
contracted basins or boxes, where they will 
have plenty of fresh water, but little or nothing 
to eat, except what they find in the clear water. 
Many will become golden; many will not; but 
we believe the proportion of golden ones might 
be greatly increased were the golden fish only 
allowed to breed. The present scarcity and 
high price, is, we presume, in a good measure, 
due to the fact that the gold, silver, and bronze 
fish, are allowed to breed together indiscrimi¬ 
nately. Besides, those who take the fish for 
market, often most heedlessly throw out the 
dark colored ones, old and young, to die on 
the shore; not regarding the fact that a great 
many, if not all, of the gold fish do not gain 
their color until they are fully a year old. 
