232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ket. Another thing in their favor is their tenaciousness of life. You may take- 

 them from the water and let them lay on the ground uniil almost any other tisb 

 would be dead, and then place them in the water again and they dart off like an 

 arrow. I took a four pound carp from the water at seven o'clock in the morning, 

 placed it in a basket, drove twelve miles to the city, exhibited it to many ad- 

 mirers, and landed him at the Governor's office at eleven o'clock btill moving his 

 gills, after being out of water four hours. 



Kudolph Hessel, Superintendent of Government Pond, has said of the carp: 

 "That there is no other fish which will, with proper management, be as advan- 

 tageous as the carp. Its frugality in regard to its food, its easy adaptability to all 

 waters, in rivers, in lakes and ponds, and even salt water estuaries, its regular 

 rapid growth and its value as a food fish are its best recommendations." 



And he further says: "I maintain my assertion that the carp, whether it be 

 scale, mirror or leather carp, is one of the most excellent fresh-water fishes, and its 

 introduction will be of great value in point of national economy, especially on 

 account of the facility of its culture, and the enormous extent to which this may 

 be carried on." 



Prof. Baird has said of the carp : " I have great faith in the future of this 

 new fish, and am quite well satisfied that within ten years it will constitute a very 

 prominent element in the food animals of this country. It is emphatically a 

 farmers fish, and may safely be claimed to be among fish what chickens are araong^ 

 birdn, and pigs and ruminants are among mammals. Its special merit lies in the 

 fact of the ease with which it is kept in very limited enclosures." 



And, notwithstanding the prevailing opinion in this country that they will 

 not flourish in waters occupied by other fish, I believe, sir, that in a few years we 

 shall find plenty of them in our lakes and rivers. If ponds continue to increase 

 throughout the country as they are and will continue to increase, what will become 

 of the innumerable carp that hatch each year? for you can hatch enough in a 

 quarter-acre pond in one season to stock a hundred-acre pond ; and I ask again,, 

 what will become of them? I answer, that they will be turned loose by the thou- 

 sands in our lakes and rivers to flourish, notwithstanding the bass and pike. They 

 already flourish in European rivers, and why not here? 



Mr. President, I am often asked where and how can I maks a pond. I answer,, 

 anywhere that you can make a place to hold water and have the water to fill it and 

 keep it filled, either by a spring, creek, branch, rain, or by a pump. One care should 

 be to turn off the surplus water iVom heavy rains. There are thousands of worthless 

 ravines in this State with springs in them that might be converted into finh ponds 

 by building a dam across them and cutting a channel around for the surplus 

 water; and there are numerous quags that could be leveled or excavated, and if I 

 had no better place I should excavate a pond in some clay land and depend on the 

 rainfall to fill it, with the aid of a hand or wind pump. The carp are not so 

 choice about the kind or amount of water that many of our native fishes are, and 

 there is no doubt that the characteristics of this fish have been brought about by 

 its long domestication. I have neither space or time to go into the details of 

 pond making. Use your common sense and judgment as you would in other mat- 

 ters. In conclusion, let me pay to you, go home and examine your premises and 

 you will find a place to make a pond. 



