206 Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
most effectual factor in holding them in check 1s the catching of 
them to supply a commercial demand. If, then, anything should 
be done, it should be to make the food value of the fish more 
widely known, and thus increase the market. At present there 
is no need to plan protection for the carp. They seem well able 
to care for themselves. But even now it is found profitable to 
capture them when they are plentiful in the spring, and to hold 
them over in retention ponds of one kind or another until the 
market prices are higher in the fall. 
Finally, it may be said in conclusion, that whereas the carp 
undoubtedly does considerable damage in one way or another, 
it nevertheless is a valuable resource to the country, its value 
in this respect far outweighing the damage done. The whole 
situation may be summed up in the statement that the carp is 
here and we could not rid our waters of it, even were such a 
course desirable ; therefore we should turn our efforts to utiliz- 
ing the fish in all ways possible. 
DISCUSSION. 
Before reading the paper Dr. Evermann said: 
I will say as a word of preface, that this paper which Mr. 
Leon J. Cole, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, presents, on “The 
Status of Carp in America,” is a brief abstract of a much larger 
report which he made to the Commissioner of Fish and Fish- 
eries, covering certain investigations which he carried on for a 
number of years. 

