THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 1405 



game fishes. It readily adapts itself to a strictly fresh-water existence, and soon 

 reproduces in its new habitat. 



The debt that sportsmen owe to the fishery service of the United States and 

 the several States for their acclimatization work is heavy and increasing yearly, 

 and the obligation is shared indirectly, but not the less actually, by hotel keepers, 

 boatmen, merchants, landowners, and others. There could be cited numerous 

 concrete examples of the varied benefits that have come to communities through 

 the stocking of local waters with nonindigenous species. In some cases the 

 improvement in the fishing has so increased the influx of people that land about 

 the waters has increased several hundred per cent in value in a few years. 



Quite a number of Old World fishes have been introduced into American 

 waters, and some of them have become well known in various parts of the 

 country. Two European trouts, the brown trout and the Scotch lake trout, 

 have been cultivated here for a score of years, and are now found in many 

 private waters. The acclimatization of the European sea trout and the Swiss 

 lake trout has also been effected. None of these fishes, however, has any 

 superiority over native species, and the demand for them is decreasing. The 

 Asiatic goldfish and the European golden ide or orf and tench are now very 

 familiar ornamental species in America, but have little commercial value; 

 the tench, however, is found in a few streams and reaches the markets in small 

 numbers. Of all the exotic fishes, none is so well known, so widely distributed, 

 so abundant, and so valuable as the carp, which was introduced from Germany 

 upward of thirty years ago. This fish has excited a great deal of criticism, 

 mostly unfriendly, and it is to-day regarded with disfavor by many people, 

 chiefly anglers, because of real or supposed habits that are reprehensible. As 

 a commercial proposition, the bringing of the carp to America has been of 

 immense benefit, for to-day it is one of the common food fishes of the country, 

 it is regularly exposed for sale in every large city and innumerable small towns, 

 it supports special fisheries in 1 5 States, and it is regularly taken for market in 

 35 States. The sales at this time amount to fully 20,000,000 pounds annually, 

 for which the fishermen receive $500,000. 



The principal carp fishery is in Illinois, where fishermen have for years 

 been reaping a golden harvest, finding a ready sale in the West and also sending 

 large consignments to New York in special cars. The next important center 

 is the western end of Lake Erie, in Ohio and Michigan, where large special 

 ponds have been constructed and a peculiar form of cultivation has sprung up. 

 Other important carp States are Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, 

 New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin. 



It is not as a great market fish, however, that the carp is destined to attain 

 its highest importance among us, but as a fish for private culture and home 

 consumption. The number of farmers and small landowners who are alive to 



