28 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



CARP CULTURE IIV TEXAS. 



By F. L.. YOAKUM, Palastine, Tex. 



[From the Galveston Weekly News, March 9 and 16, 1882.] 



If young carp fish, three or four inches in length, be placed in a lake 

 or brook in March, in September following they will be grown to the 

 length of from ten to fourteen inches, and will weigh sometimes from 

 one to one and a half pounds. It requires three years to bring a trout 

 up to one pound. Such is the wonderful growth of this new food-fish 

 now being introduced into our lakes and brooks for propagation. These 

 fish subsist mainly upon vegetable food, but will not refuse a worm or 

 insect when opportunity offers. " They grow in any kind of water," 

 but we must beware of waters tinged too strongly with turpentines or 

 products of coal distillation. They grow faster with good, natural, and 

 abundant food, in nice, pure water. Too much feeding injures the wa- 

 ter by the souring of the remaining surplus. The natural food of this 

 fish is the products of various water plants, some of which I will now 

 proceed to describe : 



1. The great Galadium esculentum. — This plant grows luxuriantly in 

 water twelve inches deep, or on the banks hard by. It has esculent 

 roots, filled with farinaceous and amylaceous matter, and is in some 

 places used as human food; hence the specific name. The plant is well 

 suited to lakes; also as fish shelter as well as food. Planted in the 

 margin of the lake, six to twelve inches deep in water, it will throw up 

 continuously, three to four feet above the surface, immensely large 

 leaves, sometimes two or three feet wide and three or four feet long, 

 giving the shores or banks quite a subtropical appearance in the size 

 and splendor of its foliage. 



2. Nymphaza odorata. — This charming water plant grows in from a 

 few inches of water to four feet deep, and yields an abundance of farina- 

 ceous matter in its stems, leaves and roots. (See Case's Botanical In- 

 dex, page 98.) It grows luxuriantly in water, and its leaves, one foot 

 broad, lie flat upon the water, affording shade to the finny tribes be- 

 neath. Its curling stems make a safe lodgment for the eggs of the 

 carp, and its pure white flowers which dot the lake over, filling the val- 

 ley with fragrance, ripen seeds which are full of nutrition. 



3. Kuphar advena. — Calhoun, of the Southern Stock Journal, is mis- 

 taken as to the species (lutcum) of our Nuphar. The yellow flowers 

 of this species have the odor of brandy, and leaves both floating and 

 erect. This is the American species. The luteum is the European, 

 and the seed contain a large quantity of farinaceous matter, and some 

 species are used for food in other countries. When planted in a lake 

 or aquarium it makes a more vigorous growth than any other variety 



