BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 379 



ing from six to seven months, and great variations in the depth of the 

 water, would moreover place great difficulties in the way of successful 

 trout raising, and would still further increase the expense. As regards 

 the carp, which, in central Europe, is raised cheaply and with comparative 

 ease, I believe that, in view of our climatic conditions, it would not pay 

 to raise carp in Finland. The northernmost countries where carp cult- 

 ure is regularly and successfully carried on are Holstein and Courland. 

 Even in Schleswig people complain of lack of success in carp culture. 

 Carp were centuries ago, introduced in Schonen, the southernmost prov- 

 ince of Sweden ; but they are not found farther north in Sweden. All 

 the attempts of King John III to raise carp on the island of Oland have 

 proved futile. In Norway the carp has been acclimatized in only two 

 places, viz, nearFarsund, in the southernmost part of the country, and 

 at Milde, near Bergen. According to Grimm, carp are said to be found 

 near St. Petersburg, in some ot the ponds belonging to the Imperial 

 country seats, and, according to Kessler, also near the Convent of Wa- 

 lamo, but there is no attempt made at carp culture. Carp were first in- 

 troduced in Finland in 1861, when Chamberlain Baron von Linder placed 

 some in a pond on his estate of Svarta, but they are said to have died 

 out after a few years. Attempts in this direction had also been made 

 prior to 1861, but likewise without result. The carp requires constant 

 care and protection, just like a domestic animal, for, in spite of its enor- 

 mous power of propagation — a large female carp producing as many as 

 1,200,000 eggs — it will not be able after having been domesticated for 

 centuries, as it has been in Central and some parts of Northern Europe, 

 to successfuly compete with other fish in open waters in the battle for 

 existence. As I remarked above, attempts to raise carp have been made 

 in the Swedish province of Schonen since 1879. 



The stocking of waters with certain kinds of fish by transferring the 

 young, and the attempts to acclimatize fish, have in no European state 

 been made directly by the Government, but they belong entirely to 

 private enterprise, or are managed by societies or associations formed 

 for the purpose. In Finland this way of carrying on fish-culture has 

 been common for a long time, and during the last twenty years fish 

 have been successfully transplanted in considerable numbers. The 

 interest in such attempts among our people is by no means on the 

 decrease, but is, on the contrary, very lively, especially since the Im- 

 perial Senate, in 1879, commenced to award small annual prizes for 

 the successful and profitable transplanting of fish. More than fifty 

 such awards have been distributed during the last four years, princi- 

 pally among the peasants; and in several cases the transplanting of 

 various specimens of Coregonus has proved a decided benefit to en- 

 tire villages and communities. As the transplanting of fish, either by 

 means of impregnated roe or young fry, or by mature spawuers and 

 milters, is so easy a matter that even peasants, who may otherwise 

 not be very bright, can do it, I do not consider it necessary that the 



