[75] 



CARP-CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 733 



Reproduction.— The scale carp produced young a year ago, which, I think will 

 do well. A few days since I noticed a small drove of quite young ones. ' 



Difficulties.— I notice that some of the carp get white specks on tliem. Perhaps 

 this is caused by their running against stones. 



341. Statement of John D. Wisherd, Benevola, Washington Co., Md., Juhj3\, 1883. 



Disposition of carp received.— Two years ago last March I received 50 carp. I 

 have kept them in a pond 90 feet long and 30 feet wide, with a depth of 3 feet at one 

 end and becoming quite shallow at the other. The bottom is marshy. The pond is 

 fed by a strong never-failing limestone spring. The temperature of the water is 56o. 



Plants.— It contains water-cress, grasses, and a green moss with a peculiar musk- 

 like scent. 



ENteMiES. — It has a few spring-water suckers in it and a few smaU frogs, but no 

 turtles. Snakes and kiugfishers have made me much trouble. 



Food. — I feed the carp occasionally with corn-meal and skimmed milk. 



Growth. — It is impossible for me to say how many of the original ones are left, 

 owing to the thickness of the moss. We have caught but one ; that weighed about 

 3 ])onuds. 



Repkoductiost. — The young are innumerable, and are of dilferent sizes and weights. 



Miscellaneous. — My pond was ouly for an experiment. I can enlarge it to about 

 the size of an acre if I find it profitable. I think fall is the best time to put carp in 

 a pond, as by spring they will be too large for the snakes to manage. 



342. Statement of Emanuel H. Frantz, Clear Spring, Washington Co., Md., Aug. 6, 1883. 



Disposition of carp received.— In the fall of 1880 I received 50 carp 3 inches 

 long, and this June I received 12 more. I constructed a pond for them 25 by 50 feet, 

 and :U feet deep, on an average. Its bottom is composed of mud and gravel and 

 rotten leaves. It is fed through an inch iron pipe out of a mill-race. The water is cold 

 mountain spring-water, and is brought by the mill-race from a dam in a gorge of the 

 first spurs of North Mountain. 



Plants. — The pond contains some water-lilies and common green plantain. A large 

 sycamore ti,"ee shades it on the southwest. 



Enemies. — There are snuxll frogs in it, and I am also troubled a great deal with 

 small fresh-water crabs, which make holes in the dam so that the water leaks out. 



Food. — The first year I fed the carp principally with water crackers and refuse from 

 the kitchen; since then with various vegetables, bread, &c. 



Growth. — They are now 8 or 9 inches long, and weigh 2 pounds or over. 



Mortality. — They did all right until this spring, when all at once they came to 

 the top as though i^erishiug for fresh air, and died in 12 hours, all except 3. I cannot 

 account for the loss, unless it was caused by poison or snake-bites. After they had 

 commenced to die I let the pond off and had it well cleaned out, but found nothing 

 but one small water-snake, and crabs and tadpoles. I had just constructed a new dam 

 lower down, so as to make a pond 80 yards long, 50 yards wide and 5 feet deep, and 

 intended to plank it up tight, when I lost all my labor in a single week. 



Miscellaneous. — I would like to get a start again. I have well boarded up my 

 new dam, and it will make a splendid place for the carp. 



343. Statement of Bev. Daniel Wolf, Fair Play, Waahington Co., Md., Aug. 1, 1883. 



Disposition of carp received. — I received 75 carp December 21, 1880. I have 

 kept them in a pond, which is triangle-shaped, each side being IGO feet in extent. 

 Its depth is 2 feet, and it has a bottom comiiosed of very hard, white marl ; but black 

 loam washes in continually. The water comes from 2 strong springs about 500 yards 

 apart; that from each enters at a difii"erent corner of the triangle, but there is only 

 one outlet. 



Plants. — Water-cresses and lettuce grow along the branches and about the spring, 

 to which the carp have access. 



Enemies. — There are some frogs, and the small turtles that are common to ponds. 

 Water-snakes, musk-rats, and cranes prove enemies to the carp, and I believe that 

 geese and ducks destroy them. [See also under Grow'TH, below.] 



Food. — The carp are so shy Mud disposed to conceal themselves that we never 

 attempted to feed them. One or two of them have been detected on several occasions 

 in picking up particles of starch dropped in the water on wash days. 



Growth— There are no old carp left that I can discover. The same night when 

 they were first put in, the ponds and the spring froze over thick with ice, and re- 

 mained so all winter. I did not see any of the fish until the following September. 

 Then I saw some 14, which seemed to be about 7 inches long ; and at that time 1 dis- 

 covered a shoal of young black bass about the size of a half-bushel, 



