AUG. 27 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
S6S 
in Germany and Austria, carp culture in the 
latter country having been traced as far back 
as 1227. As the carp has for centuries been 
raised under various conditions—in small 
ponds, large bodies of water, rivers, etc.,— 
different varieties or specieB have been de¬ 
veloped. These are divided into three prin¬ 
cipal groups1. The scale carp, with regu¬ 
lar concentrically-arranged scales, supposed 
to be the original species slightly improved 
2. The mirror carp, thus named on account of 
the extraordinarily large scales which run 
along the sides of the body, the rest of it being 
bare. 8. The leather carp, which has on the 
back either only a few scales or none at all, 
and possesses a thick, soft skin which feels 
velvety to the touch. The two last named have 
a somewhat stouter and shorter but mort fleshy 
body than the first. The leather carp, whether 
old or young, bears transportation and other 
hardships the best. Each kind is prized most 
in one or other district in Europe ; but here 
Ihe leather carp is generally esteemed most 
highly. 
The increase of the carp is extremely rapid 
under favorable conditions of location, food and 
protection from enemies. In August 1872 the 
late Mr. J. A. Coppe, out of eighty-three carp 
of various sizes he had shipped from Germany, 
succeeded in transporting alive five of the 
smallest, about the size of a steel pen, to his 
farm in Sonoma Co., California, where they 
were placed in a pond previously prepared for 
them. In the following May they had grown 
to sixteen inches in length, and the young fish 
had increased to over 3,000. Since that time 
the increase has been equally rapid, but over¬ 
stocking has been prevented by large sales to 
other persons anxious to raise carp. The 
spawning season lasts from May until August 
according to the latitude, though most of it 
takes place in May and June. The number of 
eggs in each fish is enormous, one- weighing 
five pounds containing from four to five thous¬ 
and. The eggs are agglomerated, not detached, 
and adhere in lumps to aquatic plants, stones or 
brush-wood, and in this position they can be 
readily removed from one pond to another. In 
stocking ponds three females should be put in for 
two males. 
As older carp feed on the spawn, the place 
where this rests Bhould be either partitioned 
off from them or so shallow that they cannot 
get to it. Other fish, too, devour this as well as 
the young carp, and should,therefore, never be 
admitted into a carp pond. ThiB rule should 
be especially enforced against the voracious 
pike. In addition to whatever food they may 
find in their habitation, a good feed for the 
young fish consists of one-fourth com meal 
and three-fourthB flour, mixed into a paste 
and scattered here and there in the pond in 
order to force them to seek it, as the carp, 
probably through its long maintenance in a 
state of semi-domestication, is one of the 
laziest fishes that swim, when food is plentiful 
without the need of exertion. The carp is 
very easily satisfied in the way of food. It 
feeds on almost all sorts of aquatic plants, 
such as the ordinary pond weeds, splatter 
docks, pickerel-weed, arrow-head, pond-lilies, 
duck-weed, wild rice, etc., etc., as well as 
upon garden vegetables, barley, wheat, corn, 
peas, coagulated blood, curd, worms, larvas of 
aquatic insects, kitchen refuse, slaughter¬ 
house offal, refuse of breweries and even ex¬ 
crements of cattle and pigs. Indeed there are 
very few kinds of food on which a carp will 
not thrive, though, of course, it does better on 
some than on others. Food should be given 
only early in the morning or evening so that 
the fish may search for food during the day. 
As cold weather approaches, generally in 
late October or early November in northern 
latitudes, the fish seek the deepest waters to 
hibernate in groups of from 50 to 100 and 
more. In the muddy bottom they make a 
cavity called a “kettle,” in which they pass 
the Winter, huddled together in concentric 
circles with heads close to each other, the pos¬ 
terior part of the body raised and held immova¬ 
ble, scarcely lifting the gills to breathe and 
without a particle of food. In cold climates 
this fast lasts from the beginning of October 
to the end of March, the period decreasing as 
the temperature grows milder on the way 
south. As the fish do not grow at all during 
this hibernation, they increase all the more 
rapidly the farther Booth their habitation, as 
they have then a longer time each year to 
feed and grow fat. When they are transported 
for propagation in Spring or Whiter, how¬ 
ever, they arrive at their destination worn and 
hungry, and should be placed in a tank where 
they should be fed a little. For this purpose 
a good mixture is boiled barley or rye flour 
made Into a paste with hot water and mixed 
with a little loam or dry bread. Carp grow 
only in May, June, July and August, remain¬ 
ing apparently stationary throughout the rest 
of the year—at least in the more northern 
latitudes, though in Sicily it is found their 
period of growth is considerably longer. 
In warm, shallow water the embryo fish 
breaks from its shell from the twelfth to the 
sixteenth day, and then its growth differs ac¬ 
cording to the temperature of the water, the 
amount of food and the quality of the soil— 
whether muddy or stony, cold water and 
stony ground not being favorable to its devel¬ 
opment. In three yearB the fish average from 
three to three and a quarter pounds; and if 
which it passes. The most favorable water 
will always be that which comes from rivers 
and brooks, and the supply should be so regu¬ 
lated that It will always be the same bight in 
the pond—neither overflowing from excess 
of rainfall, nor sinking low from drought. 
The accompanying engravings illustrate va- 
fig. 421. 
the weather has been unusually warm or the 
food very plentiful, they will weigh considera¬ 
bly more, The carp is known to have lived 
to the age of 140 years, increasing in size up 
to the thirty-fifth year, when it measures in 
length about 3£ feet by 2| feet in circumfer¬ 
ence, weighing between 80 and 40 pounds, 
though some “ old stagerB" have been caught 
weighing over 75 pounds. In warm, southern 
climates, Professor Baird thinks there ia no 
doubt but carp would gain a weight of two 
rious sorts of ponds both for carp culture and 
carp keeping, the former term being applied 
to the raising of carp for sale: the latter, to 
the raising of carp for the use of one’s own 
family. In the first case at least three adja- 
j ent ponds are needed—one for the young fry; 
one for the larger or growing carp; and one 
for wintering the fish. On the last the success 
of the venture mainly depends: while the ponds 
for the young fry and the growing carp may 
be shallow, the wintering pond should be from 
of water which, to prevent overflow, has to be 
conducted around the pond in a separate ditch, 
leaving an inlet at I, protected by a sluice 
with screens. 
Fig. 423. F, surface of the pond ; C, collec¬ 
tor ; D, dam; O, outlet through a tile drain to 
be blocked up except when the pond is to be 
drained in order to catch the fish : OK, outlet 
collector; J, inlet. Here, too, the stream is 
conducted around the pond. 
Fig. 424 showB a grouping of three ponds for 
carp culture, all supplied by one stream ; I, 
breeding-pond for spawning fishes and spawn; 
II, pond for small fry ; III, pond for large 
fish ; a, supply of water; 5, inlet; o. collector 
for gathering fish; o, outlet. 
In all farm carp ponds there should be a 
depression, preferably in the middle, large 
enough to permit all the fish to hibernate in it, 
and deep enough to prevent the water in it 
from freezing to the bottom in the coldest win¬ 
ter nightB, thus causing the death of the fish. 
How deep this should be will depend on the 
exposure of the pond, its surroundings and 
latitude. 
FTG. 422. 
and three-quarters to four pounds in eighteen 
months, while in colder climates it would re¬ 
quire two and a half years to attain this. 
The carp is excellently adapted for raising 
in inclosed waters, such as lakelets, pools or 
artificial ponds, and also for stocking open 
waters, such as rivers, lakes, etc. A large 
proportion of the farms in the country have 
places which might very profitably be con¬ 
verted into ponds for the purpose, bv the use of 
an ordinary road scraper to deepen marshy 
ground or any natural depression which can 
eight to twelve feet deep and should have some 
flowing water even during the coldest weather. 
What more space permits us to say, however, 
must be confined to an explanation of the cuts 
which will explain the chief requirements in 
the construction of the ponds. 
Fig.421 A. is an ordinary farm pond for carp 
keeping. B. is a shallow cut connected with 
it designed as a hatching pond where the 
young fry will be safe until old enough to be 
transferred to the pond. <J. is the supply 
stream ; G. the gate that regulates the supply ; 
fig. 423. 
be supplied with water from a spring or 
adjacent stream. A rocky, gravelly ground is 
of no use; though a Bmall pond with a sandy 
bottom may be rendered suitable by coating it 
with a thick layer of loam. Clay or 
loamy ground is the best for a carp pond. 
If it contains marl or some elements 
of humus, so much the better; but too 
much humus or dissolved peat is injurious. 
Water from bog meadows or oak wood 
contains too much humic acid and tannin and 
gives a moldy taste to the fish bo does water 
E. that which regulates the discharge; F. F. 
the stream conducted around the pond instead 
of allowing it topass through it—a mnch bet¬ 
ter plan. 
Fig. 422. —Pond P is a natural body of water 
formed by a dam, I), about seven to eight feet 
high, crossing a valley and thus collecting the 
water of a run flowing there. Before P is a 
deepening, C, the collector, for gathering the 
fish previous to scooping them out. In the 
dam J) there is an outlet leading to enother 
deepening—the so-called outlet collector o C. 
collected from rainfalls. Too much carbon¬ 
ate or sulphate of lime is also Injurious, and 
water from mineral springs should never be 
admitted, while that from ordinary springs 
should be conducted to the pond through nar¬ 
row, shallow ditches so as to become warmed 
up and hold in solution some of the soil over 
PEAR BLIGHT. 
It is a common idea that when a pear tree 
is struck with the blight, it never recovers. 
The disease is regarded very much as con¬ 
sumption in the case of a human being—some¬ 
times slow but always sure death. This idea 
has no foundation in fact, i can see from nay 
window a tree that was badly affected with 
blight ten years ago, but which is now a 
healthy tree. Such examples are plentiful. 
The object of this article is to try to impress 
upon the minds of the owners of pear trees 
the necessity of keeping constant watch of 
the trees at this time of year. As soon as the 
blight appears, there should not be an hour 
lost before the part affected is removed. If 
this is done soon enough in most cases the 
tree will be saved. The blighted limbs should 
be cut off below where blight is visible. What¬ 
ever is the nature of this blight the poison ap¬ 
pears to work downward, and consequently 
the germs of the disease exist below where 
the blight is visible ; if the limb is promptly 
removed there is no more danger of that 
tree than any other. The danger con¬ 
sists in allowing the blighted part to i-e- 
main until the poison has extended so far 
as to endanger the life of the tree. During 
the last year important observations have 
been made with the aid of powerful micro¬ 
scopes to ascertain the true character of this 
disease. These efforts I think have been per¬ 
fectly successful. There is no longer any rea¬ 
sonable doubt of the true cause of pear blight. 
Our only concern here is about the remedy. 
Prompt removal is the only remedy we know 
of at present. My advice is, let this be quickly 
and thoroughly done. A. M. Williams. 
Onondaga Co., N. T. 
Another Earlv Peach—Fredenbnrg. 
It has been made evident to me by my ex¬ 
perience of to-day that the limit of earli¬ 
ness, in addition to size and quality, has not 
yet been reached in the peach. I had heard 
of an early peach at Kingston in the neighbor 
ing county of Ulster and one of the local 
papers attempted to describe it, but this was 
done in such an incomplete manner that I 
resolved to make an examination. Mr. Fre- 
denberg, a respectable and ssecessful business¬ 
man of the city, received me very cordially, 
but Mrs. F., who has the principal care of their 
fruit and flower garden, and who planted the 
pit of this new variety, was uufortunately not 
at home. Yet 1 saw the peach tree and ate of 
the fruit, which is of the largest size for a 
peach ripening in this latitude on the 25th of 
July. I have little doubt, from its general ap¬ 
pearance, that this new seedling is from the 
Alexander, the constitution of that class being 
so strong that it continues to reproduce from 
the pit. It is a most beautiful fruit, and may 
prove valuable for the peach region of the 
Hudson River. The leaf is without glands 
and finely serrated; blossoms large. A. a. b. 
Newburgh N. Y., Aug. 4. 
isuUaiuoits. 
The purpose of this collector is to keep back 
fishes that may have passed the outlet when 
opened. It Is provided with a screen or net¬ 
ting, OP. Upon the bottom of poHd P, is the 
collector-ditch, which conducts the fishes to O 
when the water is let out, and thus prevents 
their being caught in the mud. R is the run 
VARIOUS TOPICS. 
That excellent early dessert pear, the Do¬ 
yenne d’Eto, has with me produced an im¬ 
mense crop of fruit this season, and ripened it 
in an excellent condition. I do not think this 
pear is as extensively cultivated as its merits 
entitle it to be. and why it is not more gener¬ 
ally planted is more than I can say. The tree 
is of vigorous, healthy growth and is also re¬ 
markably productive. The fruit is of small 
