INTRODUCTORY. 



In the infancy of any industry, there is always much mis-direction of 

 thought, effort and means. This is necessarily so, for those who teach 

 must think, and the best of thought grows only on the tree of experience, 

 and to gain experience requires time to grow the tree. Systems do not 

 develop in a single season, and infallibility among systems is as rare as it 

 is among men. In all methods judgment must be exercised as to' time, 

 place and circumstances, and upon this judgment must depend individual 

 success or failure. 



American carp culturists owe much to the pioneers of public thought 

 on this question, through the courtesy of the public prints. This debt of 

 gratitude is greatest to those whose thought took the form of pamphlets 

 and books, in which list I am glad to include my warm personal friends, 

 Hugo Mulertt, of Cincinnati, O., Hon. I. B. W. Steedman, of St. Louis, 

 Mo., George Finley, of Pittsburg, Pa., and Valentine Stillabower, of TCdin- 

 burg, Indiana. The United States Fish 'Commission, under whose aus- 

 pices carp were introduced into this country, has through the Bulletin of 

 the Commission, under the direction of C. W. Smiley, of Washington, D. 

 C., contributed largely to the correct literature on the subject. Could this 

 printed matter have reached the hands of the numbers now engaged in 

 carp culture, it would probably have been sufficient. But with the rapid 

 growth of interest in carp culture, and the constantly multiplying ponds 

 and owners thereof, added to the fact that the editions of all these other 

 works but one are exhausted, there has arisen a demand for a work that 

 is abreast of the growing industry. This demand joined with the Syren 

 voices of friends who were acquainted with the valuable sources from 

 which I have been drawing information during the past flve years, has 

 lured me on to the publication of this work. 



In addition to the writings of those persons already named, cheerful 

 recognition is given to the aid derived from the writings of Hessel, Horak 

 and Nicklas. Where the exact language of any other writer is used, due 

 credit is given. But where their thoughts are interwoven each with the 



