BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISII COMMISSION. 235 



58.— CARP CUL-TUItE IN CHINA. 



By D. J. MACGOWAN, M. D. 



Minister Young having desired Consul Stevens, of Ningpo, to insti- 

 tute inquiries concerning the culture of fish and especially of carp in 

 China, I cheerfully respond to Mr. Stevens's request for aid in the 

 matter; not because of any intrinsic value that iny research may pos- 

 sess, but again to manifest my readiness to co-operate in undertakings 

 that have for their object the introduction into our country of appliances 

 and industries which this ancient and ingenious race has developed in 

 the long inarch to its present state of civilization. 



Pisciculture was cultivated as an industry at an early period, having 

 been regarded a branch of agriculture. A treatise on " Eearing Fish " is 

 ascribed to Fanli, a famous minister of the State of Yu (modern Cheh- 

 kiang), fifth century B. C. He is renowned forpromoting industries which 

 enriched the country, and by which, in retirement, he amassed enormous 

 wealth, chiefly by rearing stock. Tradition says he constructed carp 

 ponds and planted mulberry-trees on the margins, on which apiaries were 

 placed, the droppings from which fed the fish, while the leaves of the 

 tree nourished first silk- worms and then goats.* That work, however, 

 on fish-culture was not by Fanli; it appears to have been composed in 

 the third century A. D., and has been long lost, but there exists a quo- 

 tation from it in a work entitled " Important methods of maintaining 

 population," written about a century later, which will serve as an intro- 

 duction to the subject in hand, premising, that while carp, especially, 

 is the most frequently reared by artificial means, nearly every species 

 of Cyprinidce, bream, tench, roach or rudd, goldfish, &c, is so raised. 



" Now, of the five modes of rearing animals, by far the most produc- 

 tive and valuable is fish-breeding. Let the pond be an acre in extent 

 (depth not stated, they are usually less than 8 feet) ; construct in it 

 nine stone islets, each having eight inlets or bays, a yard below the sur- 

 face of the water ; select 20 spawning carp and 4 males, all 3 feet long : 

 deposit them noiselessly during the month of March. Two months later 

 place in the fish pond a turtle, two months later a couple, and after a 

 like period 3 turtles, by which time there will be 3G0 carp. The tur- 

 tles are to prevent their being transformed into dragons and Hying 

 away.t The object of the islets and bays is to afford greater space for 



"Ravines at Snowy Valley, Ningpo, abound in hives, which, by their droppings, 

 nourish a variety of the carp family, a bream, imparting to the fish a peculiar flavor. 

 What gives mutton from silk districts its excellence is the mulberry leaf. 



t This refers to a belief that this prolific fish changes into that fabulous monster. 

 Iu the Yang period, when Taoism was in the ascendant, carp were held sacred ; wben 

 netted, the law required their restoration to the stream, and sixty blows was the 

 penalty for eating one. 



