144 American Fisheries Society. 



and marketed in that section than any other kind; and that they reach a class 

 of the people who could not afford a higher grade of fish? Also the carp 

 furnishes food for the game fish. There is nothing more destructive to 

 game fish than their own kind. For example, the pike will eat more fish 

 in a day than you will eat in a month. 



Mr. Brown : In regard to the use of the carp as a forage fish, I have 

 run across that a number of times in the past year. Some people have ad- 

 vocated that the carp should be introduced into natural bass waters with 

 a view to their young serving as food for the bass. I went extensively into 

 the matter; and it would appear that as the carp increase, though they do 

 not feed directly on the bass, they are nearer to the source of the food 

 supply than the bass. The bass have to take their food after a number 

 of turn-overs, whereas the carp can feed on the vegetation direct; the re- 

 sult is that as the carp increases in size and numbers — and there is a great 

 increase when they first come in — they begin to compete with the bass. 

 They tend to eliminate the vegetation by grubbing and rooting in the water, 

 and they consume the roots. Dr. Osborn found, a couple of years ago, over 

 five thousand seeds of plants in the stomach of a single carp. In this way 

 the vegetation is gradually eliminated; and the turbidity of the water, created 

 through the operations of the carp, has a very deleterious effect on bass 

 eggs, also on the young bass — particularly the small-mouth. In addition to 

 this, the turbidity of the water enables swift water-minnows, such as 

 chubs, redfins, fallfish, and so on, to operate as if under a smoke screen 

 and to take the young bass. The consequence is that the partial protection 

 ordinarily afforded by the mature bass to their young is done away with. 



Mr. Culler : Why not hatch them out under proper restrictions ? When 

 it comes to sport it is hard to beat a 10-pound carp. I have got them on 

 live minnows, and I have had some sport with a 10-pound carp ; you cannot 

 land him unless you have a net. In fact, I have had more sport with a 10- 

 pound carp than I could have with a 5-pound bass. You cannot land a 

 carp as you land a salmon. 



Mr. Brown : What kind of minnow did you use for bait? 



Mr. Culler: Chub. 



Mr. Brown: How big a fish was it? 



Mr. Culler: The chub — about 3 or 4 inches. 



Mr. Brown : Then it would appear that the carp do eat live fish. 



Mr. Culler : They will eat live bait in certain places — in the rivers ; 

 that was in the Mississippi River. But do not crush the old fellov/ out; 

 give him a show. 



Dr. Emmeline Moore, Albany, N. Y. : I have been very much inter- 

 ested in the hypothetical problem that Mr. Brown has projected and the 

 very interesting and intelligent way in which he has analyzed the steps in 

 the solution of that hypothetical problem. But I feel that his conclusion 

 is weak in one respect. He states that this hypothetical pond or lake will 

 have, when it is properly adjusted, only one limiting factor, and that is the 

 angler. I cannot quite see how, in a pond so intensively cultivated, the 

 only limiting factor would be the angler. 



Mr. Brown : I expressed the idea that such a thing would be possible 



