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 5, 1863.] The following rough sketch will indicate the style of pond we mean:—

Great care should be taken not to admit the cannibal pike, or he will soon make short work with the finny population. Fish can be easily transferred from one piece of water to another. Mr. Maltby, at his pond of La Hulpe, uses for the purpose of carrying fish from one pond to another large barrels; and the jolting of the cart on which these are transported keeps the fish in a lively condition, whilst a wisp of straw in the bunghole admits a sufficient supply of air. The effect of transferring the fish from one lake to another, Mr. Maltby says, told favourably on their rate of growth. The ponds of this gentleman at Boilsfut and La Hulpe, near Brussels, are well worth seeing.

Although the necessity for gentlemen to grow their own fish has, in a sense, departed with the extension of the railway system, still, when an estate is possessed of a piece of water, either natural or artificial—and at one time every gentleman who had a park deemed it incomplete without a fish-stew—it is as well to take advantage of it; and even in places where there are facilities for the formation of a sheet of water on waste ground, otherwise unprofitable, we have no hesitation in saying that it would pay to “grow” fish.

Ponds, like the pair we have sketched, may be constructed of any size—from one to twenty acres. Great care ought to be taken in their formation, as the fish readily take on a foreign flavour, and some discretion in filling the pond when it is made is necessary. Perch, carp, trout, and bream are the best fish to breed. Of course, a pond ought not to be overstocked; the feeding-ground being limited, only a certain number of fish will profitably thrive in it. The most suitable size of water for a pond is about three acres, and ponds are best adapted for breeding and fattening in suits of three—the water being made to flow from one to the other.

As to how many fish a given extent of water will support, there are many different opinions. Much, undoubtedly, will depend on the soil which surrounds the ponds, whether or not it yields a supply of food of any kind, and also on the stream employed to supply the water. The flavour of a fish, we may say, depends entirely on the kind of food it obtains; and when more fishes are placed in a piece of water than there is food for, they will either equalise the supply by turning cannibals, or remain lank and flavourless. The “person of honour” to whom we have referred as writing on fish-ponds, and who had evidently a good knowledge of his subject, recommended, for small ponds of only a few acres in extent, three hundred carps per acre, if the water became fat after a good rain; a few tenches are also to be added, likewise perches to any extent. The upper ponds must be used for breeding the fish—that is, as nurseries for the young, from which, in due time, to supply the larger water. Of the fry, a fair allowance will be twenty-five to the square rood, and the largest of these should be let out in the course of two years, and their places supplied by others. In due time the new-made ponds will be filled with breeding-fish, and the best way, then, is to let nature have full swing; for if food, either natural or artificial, be not abundant, the supply will become self-regulating. The proper plan for profit is just to feed our fish in the same way as we feed our turkeys, or other domestic fowls.

Another foreign fish-pond, as well worth mentioning as those at La Hulpe and Boilsfut, is very picturesquely situated at Wolfsbrunnen, near the Castle of Heidelberg. This pond is of the simplest possible construction, and has been formed out of a small tributary of the Neckar, about half-a-mile to the south of the castle. The bed of the rivulet has been divided, at a suitable place, into three parts, all of which are effectually separated from each other by iron-gratings. The trout very naturally spawn in the upper waters, but return to live and sport about the feeding-grounds of the lower ponds, where there are excellent contrivances for affording them shelter; and as the water is very clear, the habits of the fish can be noted with great ease. The family seems to be most despotically governed, a few of the larger trout ruling the others with a rod of iron; thus, when a supply of food is thrown in, some gigantic member of the community will rush at it with great vigour, and carry it out of the midst of the hungry small fry who have been expecting to partake of it. Thus, in every fish-community, there are a few fat fellows who contrive to secure a very large share of the food. In the pond at Wolfsbrunnen the trout attain a considerable size, specimens of six and seven pounds in weight being very common. They are daily fed with small fishes, which are caught for that purpose in the Neckar. The pond is in charge of the landlord of the small inn adjacent, and is chiefly designed for the use of his customers, and not so much for the sale of the fish as an article of commerce.