116 Thirtieth Animal Meeting 



jVIr. Peabody : I am very glad that Dr. Bartlett, the friend 

 of the carp, has introduced the subject, l)ecanse we want to get 

 some information in that line. I have run up against a number 

 of very strong statements regarding the injury that carp do the 

 fishing and sliooting interests of Wisconsin. Only a day before 

 this meeting began I attended a meeting of the directors of the 

 Diana Shooting Club, and some of the directors stated emphati- 

 cally that the carp were ruining our shooting, that they were 

 eating up the wild rice and wild celery. One of the gentlemen 

 said that the introduction of carp in Lake Koshkonong had 

 destroyed the fishing of black bass and pike ; that they roiled the 

 waters and kept them in that state all the time, and that there- 

 fore the black bass and pike were driven out and did not propa- 

 gate. I was in hopes that Mr. Eavenel would be here, because he 

 has been the one defender of the carp at all these meetings, and I 

 have always relied on him as to the value of the carp. He stated 

 last year that the highest priced fish sold in New York during 

 Xovember and December was carp ; that they came in ^Wth the 

 turkey and were considered edil)le and valual)le. Xow some of 

 the fish culturists here undoul)tedly can give infornuition that 

 will be of value to us in this state especially as to just how much 

 injury carp are and do, and if there are any gentlemen here who 

 can answer the question, do they destroy the wild celery and the 

 wild rice on such marshy ponds as are frequented by ducks, to 

 the injury of the duck shooting, and do they roil the water so as to 

 prevent the propagation of such game fish as bass and pike, and 

 do they destroy the spawn, and do they go on the spawning beds 

 of the black bass and destroy them, the information they give us 

 will 1)0 very acceptable. Those are questions that I wish might 

 be opened up here and discussed freely so that those of us who 

 are not thoroughly posted on the subject may become so. 



Mr. Townsend : It may be that the carp has been introduced 

 in some places where it was not needed, where other kinds of fish 

 were more important; it might not be advantageous to introduce 

 the car]) into the ])eautiful little lakes of TMr. Peabody 's state; 

 })ut there are many waters in this country teeming with carp, 

 and people are finding out in many places that carp is a food fish. 

 There is a market for carp in the big eastern cities and carp will 

 sell there. They sometimes sell even for a high ])rice; generally 



