THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES, 
By Leon J. Cone. 
INTRODUCTION. 
For a number of years there appears to have been in many sections 
of this country an increasing popular prejudice against the German 
earp. These fish were distributed very generally throughout the 
United States something over twenty years ago, with the idea that 
they would be extensively raised in ponds and so previde a supple- 
mentary income from small inland waters which were unsuitable for 
other fishes, or from land upon which. artificial ponds could be con- 
structed. It was inevitable that many of the fish should escape into 
the natural waters of the country; and within a few years many of 
our rivers and lakes were teeming with carp, for which, at that time, 
there was little or no market. With ated who had been able to 
- obtain in abundance many species of our finer ene fishes, the coarser 
flesh of the carp found little favor, and, under the circumstances, it 
was perhaps but natural that prejudice shouts arise, especially because 
the carp was supposed to be injuring the existing fisheries. In some 
cases the adverse opinions were founded upon facts and a knowledge 
of the habits of the fish; more often they were the repeated hearsay 
born of suppositions and complete ignorance of the subject or of 
misinterpreted observations. The newspapers also took the matter 
up, and the carp was decried on all sides without stint. 
In the summer of 1901, in order to obtain evidence upon the matter, 
the writer was appointed by the United States Bureau of Fisheries 
(then the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries) to make 
an investigation of the habits of the carp and to gather any available 
information relative to its usefulness or obnoxiousness. The work 
was done in connection with the general biological investigation of 
the Great Lakes under the general direction of Prof. Jacob Reighard, 
of the University of Michigan. Professor Reighard was not in active 
charge of the work, however, in 1901, Prof. H. S. Jennings, then also 
at the University of Michigan, acting as director during that season. 
I take pleasure in thanking both Professor Reighard and Professor 
Jennings for their interest in the investigation and for their readi- 
ness at all times to do everything in their power to further the work. 
ined: 
