The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-04-10
GERMAN CARP.

'o"h W ilenutTsOnNl!Ie, North Carolina
through winding and beautiful avenue
OF rhododendrons and mountain laurel
and your correspondent WAS at Dun
Cragin, the handsome residence of III. G
| Ewart, 800 feet above Hendcrsonville
I and $500 feet above the sea level
Standing in the broad and spacious We
randas the view is beautiful beyond
| description. AT the foot Of the hill
| sparkles bright crystal sheets Of water
beyond the little mountain town, with its
cottages, spires and churches farther yet
the lovely valley Of the Ochiawaha, and
Alleghanies, extending for miles and
miles unbroken ranges Of lofty, blue
capped peaks, making in its entirety one
of the loveliest landscapes in our beauti
full southland. The Constitution scribe
met with courteous reception from the
proprietor Of Dun Cragin who, upon
being aPprised Of the object of the visit
| at once consented to afford any iuforma.
ton i'll his power upon the subject in
question. The subject, l need scarcely
! add, was Carp, the new Dutch immi.
grant, It's culture and its future"
Without delay the Constitution opened
its batteries.
What first lead NE into the cultiva.
ton of carp upon such an extensive
scale 2"
well" answered siS. Ewart, 81 will
perhaps surprise you by saying that the
carp farm owes its origin i" the Atlanta
Constitution. The graphic articles de.
scrlPtive of this fish, written few years
ago by the brilliant and versatile Grady,
first attracted my attention. Mt once
secured from the United States fish com
missioner, through the Hon. II. B.
Vance, NJ. c., from this district, few
dozen Of the carp fry" and placing
them in small pond prepared for the
purpose, awaited results. The rapidity
of their growth surprised me beyond
measure, and when ascertained By eat
ing several of the fish then weighing
from to II pounds, that the edible
qualities were nearly, if not quite, equal
to the shad, and infinitely the superior of
the perch, bass or sucker, at once con-
cluded that the carp was the "fish for the
Masses" and that its culture could be
made an exceedingly profitable business.
With this end in view I built extensive
ponds, covering an area of several acres,
and stocked them with lot Of fine carp,
only to lose them, however, in II year
afterwards"
"How was that?"
'By committing the serious blunder of
building cheap dams. The heavy fresh
cts of 1882, so destructive in your State,
swept my dams away, leaving me with a
dozen or more of my carp, aud consid-
erable amount Of experience on hand"
"What nextW
Having learnt from actual experience
that it was folly to construct large carp
ponds, unless the dams were solidly built
| at once began careful study of the
science of dam building, for science it
certainly is. After some time decided
to adopt the Jones system l regret
that am not at liberty TO explain this
system AS application for letters patent
for this process Of dam building, with its
concomitants, sluice way gate, fish screen,
etc, is now pending before the United
States patent office. But if you will
walk down to my ponds will give you
an idea of their construction"
a feH moments walk we we're at
Il small pond Of cleau Wal -, covering an
area of Il quarter Of an acre, just above
and connected with lovely sheet Of
water covering an area of five acres.
This small pond" said Mr.. Ewart, "is
my Matching pond. 1t is fed by the wa.
ter of adjacent springs conducted in
wooden troughs, and is from four feet to
two inches in depth. 1t is, as you see,
well supplied with needle grass, pickerel
weed, water lilies, and other acquatics.
The five acre pond below is the nursery
pond In that pond have rs breeders
carefully selected for size and quality.
feet to two inches, the soil is black lean.
an nd in
shallow water, you observe, is lined with
willow and hemlock brush. Here during
the warm, sunny mornings of April and
May, the breeders spawn, deposting their
eggs, which are adhesive amopg the
wigs and brush under the surface of the
water. Did you ever watch fish spawn T.
The Constitution scribe had not.
iThcn you should do 80, as the sight is
a novel and noisy process. Just before
the spawning season, the carp evince
great activity. Naturally slu ggish, it
now swims rapidly through the pond,
and often, like mulIets, jumps It's entire
length out of the water. When ready to
deposit its eggs the female carp heads
rapidly for the warm, shallow water
closely pursued by the male, sometimes q
half dozen OF them at time 'tumbling
heads over tails When the female
drops her sggs the male winning close.
ly behind her drops his milt amongst the
egggs, and vigorously lashing the water
With bic tell, EiiSes the spawn. This is
the act of impreguation, and the eggs
hatch in from six to twelve days, accord
ing TO the temperature Of the water.
Whenever l ascertain that the carp
are spawning, l examine the brush and
twigs carefully and transfer the branches
covered with eggs to the Matching pond,
in which no fish are kept at all. Here
they are placed ir water, shallow water,
and carefully protected from frogs, turtle,
etc., until Matched, when they are regular
fed with small particles of bread or
cracker crumbs saturated inNsweet milk
You observe trunk extending through
the dam Of the Matching pond into the
nursery pond =? This is the pass way for
the small fry from the Matching pond to
the nursery. The mouth of that trunk
in the Matching pond is screened with
galvanized wire mesh large enough to
allow the little fry to pass through into
their nursery but too small to permit
ingress the larger fish. In the nursery
the hatch of this year are allowed TO
remain till November, when the pond is
drawn and the fry, now lively little
fingerlings able to care for themselves,
transferred to the 'stock pond" one.
fourth mile above the nursery. This is
made by placing the young carpi in forty
gallon barrels and hauling them to the
stock pond. Several thousand can be
carried in a single barrel The
stock pond when at it's height Gov
ers al area of seventy five acres.
ha hau nj n