2()2 Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
Washington and Baltimore, and it is their progeny which were 
distributed and have populated nearly all of the available waters 
of the United States. 
At first the carp met with great popular favor and requests 
for young fish came to the Fish Commission from all parts of 
the country far faster than they could be filled. Largely on ac- 
count of ignorance of the proper methcds, or negligence and 
want of proper care, pond culture did not, however, meet in 
most cases with success; and not only was almost all attempt at 
artificially raising the fish soon abandoned, but they came into 
general disfavor almost as rapidly. This was probably due to 
a variety of causes. In the first place the quality. of the flesh did 
not compare favorably with many species of native fish, and in 
this respect did not fulfill expectations. To make carp palatable 
it is usually cooked in ways that were more or less unfarniliar 
or unknown to those who were trying the experiment in this 
country, and for this reason, too, it was not appreciated even for 
its true worth. But the adverse criticism became even stronger 
and more widely spread as, coincident with the rapid decrease 
which was noticed to be taking place in the numbers of many 
of our native fishes, the carp as rapidly multiplied and came to 
be exceedingly abundant in all the waters adapted to them. Not 
only were they held to be responsible for the decrease of other 
fisheries, but, owing to their propensity to stir up the mud and 
to root out aquatic plants, they were charged with destroying 
the vegetation in the marshes, and thus, secondarily, were said 
to be the cause of the rapid decline in the numbers of wild ducks 
and similar birds, whose feeding-grounds, it was claimed, were 
thus destroyed. The constant roiliness of the water, especially 
in reservoirs, due to the presence and operations of the carp, in 
many cases became a positive nuisance. But since nearly every- 
one is familiar with the strong dislike with which the carp has 
come to be regarded in all but perhaps two or three sections of 
this country, it is unnecessary to go further into detail. The in- 
vestizations here reported were undertaken with the view to as- 
certain, in so far as was possible in a limited time, the true state 
of affairs—to find to what extent the carp was responsible for 
the changes taking place; and, on the other hand, to determine 

