American Fisheries Society. 115 



got to take carp. Illinois produced three quarters of a million of 

 dollars in coarse fish last ye&j. It would be as much as your life 

 is worth to take a trip down to the Illinois river and tell the men 

 there that carp is not a good thing. They would take you out 

 and duck you gracefully into the river. More than one-half the 

 towns on the Illinois river depend mostly for their existence on 

 the fish industry, and considerably over two-thirds of the fish 

 taken are carp. They grow anywhere and everywhere ; they grow 

 with tlic l)lack bass, and the black bass are as plentiful as ever. 

 Illinois can furnish one-half the l)lack bass for stock in the United 

 States, and yet there will be no diminution in quantity. We 

 take just as many black bass with the hook and line this year as 

 ever, while the carp are steadily on the increase. I have no 

 patience with the newspaper talk that says that the carp are an 

 enemy of the game fish. I do not believe anybody can prove it. 

 I would like to hear it if it is so. 



The carp in this state are accused of eating up all of the 

 water plants, — in fact they have been accused of destroying the 

 duck hunting in the states of Illinois and Indiana; they have 

 been accused of almost every crime that fish can be accused of, 

 but I do not believe any one can prove that the carp has ever 

 l^een an enemy of the game fish or destroys its young or spawn. 

 That is a pretty bold statement to make, but we have representa- 

 tives here from all over the country, and I would like to hear 

 Avhat they have have got to say on the subject. I hold the posi- 

 tion that the United States government made the most practical 

 plant of any of its plants when it planted carp in the muddy 

 waters of such states as Illinois and Indiana. Twenty-five years 

 of experience with jioople in the state of Illinois in the fish busi- 

 ness has been up-hill work. I took the commission there when 

 there was not a line on the statute books for the protection of 

 fish, and I have followed it up until now, and previous to the 

 introduction of the carp the muddy waters of Illinois were 

 iilmost depleted of coarse fi.sh, and today it is shipping to the 

 east more and better fisli than any other western state. 



If I get a little bit extravagant, please attribute it to old age 

 and forgetfulness. I do not wish to make any mistake or to 

 ■exaggerate. I came here just to provoke the discussion on the 

 ■carp. 



