BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 317 



saying they never had eaten anything more delicious. I know I never 

 will. — John Houston, Farmville, Va. 



135. Most excellent fish they ever ate. — I killed a dozen. 

 My family and neighbors had them fried, and all pronounced them the 

 most excellent of any fish they ever saw. — E. C. Dickinson, Rush, Tex. 



136. A CRUCIAL TEST WITH MAGNIFICENT RESULTS. — Eight out of 



ten men with whom we have ever conversed about the table qualities 

 of the German carp have affirmed that the fish was unsurpassable as 

 an article of diet, but every now and then there comes along a ninth 

 and tenth man who pronounces it coarse, dry, and not fit to eat. Our 

 mind being thus unsettled on this great subject — and the present 

 absorbing public interest in the carp culture demanding a dissipation 

 of all doubts — we addressed a note to our old friend, Capt. A. D. Bates, 

 of Batesburg, the pioneer of carp-raising in our county, begging that 

 he allow us to spend a day with him and test the qualities of the carp. 

 His reply was, "Come any day you please. Bring whomsoever you 

 please. I shall be delighted, and you shall eat fried carp three times 

 a day." 



As regards the carp at dinner, it was in this wise : There were two 

 dishes of them, 7 or 8 on each dish, fried. All these were in size from 

 one to two pounds. They were fried as shad are. And certainly — and 

 in all honesty and sincerity — we have never tasted a more delicious 

 fish. So far from being dry, they are precisely the opposite; though 

 as they grow older, the flesh becomes more solid. They have but few 

 bones ; the backbone and ribs, with but few besides. As we ate of the 

 fish, the thought occurred to us that perhaps there was more in the 

 cooking than in the fish. We intimated this thought to Mrs. Bates, 

 who laughingly assured us that the frying process was of the very sim- 

 plest, and that the fish were standing emphatically upon their own 

 merits. In conclusion we beg to say that if our personal and individual 

 experience of the table qualities of the German carp will be any encour- 

 agement to them in carp raising, we again affirm, without fear of suc- 

 cessful contradiction, that the carp is an exceedingly delicious fish, and 

 well worthy of any pains that may be bestowed upon it. — Jas. T. Bacon 

 and Thos. J. Adams, Editors of the Edgefield Advertiser, Edgefield, 

 8. C., March 2d, 1883. 



III. — COMPARISONS WITH OTHER FISH — VERY GENERALLY COMPLI- 

 MENTARY. 



137. Good; equal to buffalo. — Have eaten several that were 

 fried. We consider their edible qualities good — equal to the buffalo in 

 the Ohio Biver. — Matthew B. Carter, Shaher, Ohio. 



13S. Equal to buffalo. — We ate one, fried, which got caught in 

 the ice and was killed. It was about as good as a buffalo, though if it 

 had been fresh perhaps it would have been better. — G. W. Varnum, 

 Montgomery City, Mo. 



