73 



I said at the commencement that this method is to 

 be abandoned. Every medal has its reverse. We 

 may say that the hardiness of the carp has been the 

 origin of its degeneration as a species. The fish cul- 

 tnrist grows careless about the selection of the breed- 

 ing fish, and ver}^ often before having his attention 

 called to it the carp have spawned in the pond quite 

 promiscuously. Nevertheless he sells the young for 

 re-stocking at the same price as if they had been of a 

 good race ; also through this negligence the pond deter- 

 iorates, as in Sologne, where the carp has greatly degen- 

 erated and has acquired a factitious quality of repro- 

 ducing too early. The Sologne people have remarked 

 upon this without comprehending its significance. 

 They sa}^ in this connection that the carp is preco- 

 cious. 



As a result, it frequently happens that the alevins 

 placed in a pond to grow begin to breed before they 

 have reached a marketable size, and they have no com- 

 mercial value. This characteristic has been acquired 

 by living many generations in ponds which are too 

 warm, and has become fixed by heredit}^ High tem- 

 perature stimulates the reproductive functions and the 

 animal becomes incapable of growing large. 



Is it advisable to cultivate such a mediocre fish ? 

 Here are some figures which will answer this question, 

 and without burdening you with a long and detailed 

 enumeration I will furnish the two extreme terms of 

 this series. 



First, the minimum. 



In 1892, in Sologne, the proprietors of ponds had 

 difficulty to sell carp at seventy centimes a kilogram. 

 After deducting four per cent, and the expenses of fish- 

 ing, which would give about fifty-two centimes a kilo- 

 gram, and as a hectare produced an average of not 

 more than eighty kilograms, this is a yield of about 

 forty-five francs a hectare ; but it should be noted in 



