THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 617 
fish when they are on the floor ordinary large scoop-shovels are used. 
Each day the boxes of carp are shipped either by freight or express to 
the large cities, where they are in demand. rom the fact that some 
of the fish from Lake Erie at times reach New York still in a living 
condition, it will be seen that there is no need that the fish should be 
cleaned before shipment, even did not the consumption of the greater 
portion by Jews demand that they be shipped ‘‘ in the round.” 
Some firms, when the supply of carp exceeds the demand at the 
time, freeze a part of the catch and hold them over in this way, but 
the frozen fish do not find so ready a sale. 
EXTENT OF THE FISHERIES. 
The amount and value of the carp output of Lake Erie has been 
steadily on the increase for the past eight or nine years. The fish 
first began to be handled by the dealers in about 1890 or 1891, but 
had no extensive market until about 1895. At a fish house in Port 
Clinton it was stated that when they first began to be taken they were 
thrown in with the mullets and sold at 1 cent a pound, and the 
dealers did not want them at that price. They were then put on the 
list as German carp, at 5 cents, and at once found a ready sale. 
That the fishery had not become established in 1892 is shown by the 
fact that carp are not mentioned under the ‘‘ Products of Lake Erie 
fisheries,” in the Report of the United States Fish Commission for 
that year (p. cl), nor in the paper by Smith in the same report on 
the fisheries of the Great Lakes.“ They were being used more or 
less in other places, however, and Smith (1898, p. 494) estimates the 
amount of carp taken in the waters of the United States, exclusive of 
the Great Lakes, in 1894, as 1,448,217 pounds, valued at $37,683 
The catch from [ilinois was more than four times that from any cites 
state, Iowa coming next. The Lake Erie fisheries had increased 
enormously by 1899, and Townsend (1901) in reporting for that year 
says (p. 178): 
The catch of carp in Lake Erie in 1899 amounted to 3,633,679 pounds, valued at 
$51,456. The report of the Illinois Fishermen’s Association shows that the catch of 
carp in the Illinois River is greater than that of all other species combined, the 
or 29) 
quantity of carp taken in 1899 amounting to 6,332,990 pounds, valued at $189,980. 
The yield of carp from the Ohio River and two of its tributaries, the Cumberland 
and Wabash rivers, during the same year, amounted to 118,387 pounds, worth 
$6,654. 
These figures show an increase in the quantity of carp derived from the above- 
named waters am oune to nearly nine times the dean iby y} ielded six years ago. 
a Although the Lake Erie and Illinois carp vicar had not become established at this time, nee 
fish from eastern waters were finding a ready sale in the New York markets. This is shown by the 
following statement of Mr. John H. Brakeley (1889a): ‘‘ I have sold several hundred pounds of carp 
during the past autumn in the New York market, the commission merchants getting 15 cents a 
pound for them. I am satisfied that it will pay to feed carp, and shall do considerable of it next 
season.”’ 
