618 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
In the summer of 1901 I myself visited all the principal fish dealers 
on Lake Erie, and made as accurate an estimate as possible of the 
extent of the carp fishery for the calendar year 1900. A number of 
factors prevent great accuracy in such an inquiry; for example: (a) 
Some dealers keep no record whatever of the carp handled by them; 
(4) others keep record only of their own catch, not recording those 
bought by them from fishermen; (c) in some cases the carp are weighed 
in and sold with the suckers, and (d) it sometimes happens in the 
spring that carp come in faster than they can be handled, when the 
surplus is weighed up with the refuse, and sent to the fertilizer fac- 
tories. In spite of this, however, it is felt that the following statistics 
give a fair estimate of the total amount of carp shipped from Lake 
Erie in 1900: 
: Pounds. 
Wet roms SMG ans ese SE LA Tin eZ re Jee a ce Ct Sr re h eg dae aeee oe SOR, eee 300, 000 
Monroe sy Witchy se Ase, 45 eas oes Dy see eg ie. a Saeed Ss eta Leet eee eee 14, 000 
Moledo; Olio seack cee cae «iA lee eb a Ped ee ae Seite eee eae 432, 548 
IBorti@lin tom OOo We cee ee a eye eee ea oe ee cere PaO ls (es 
SANE CHUIS Kayan ONTO Aes 0 oa BEG, he ee eh, SN eS ap eee regs. 1, 260, 817 
Lotal for westerm end: of lake..5.44::' 3. 25}-3.. ise ae 4, 369, 088 
LUTON, ON OeRS Bet tr Ls 22 oh URE Ae Be 2 A RY eee OS Chee ae 14, 168 . 
Mermirliony@hiot 22 25 2c asc apse Biers SAE PS PS Spt Ea oe ed | es 3, 561 
duondin,, Ol 4.22 Sy ttdngathoe ques Osu Sereless ak ae oe ee ee 20, 773 
@leveland; “Ohio s2)325 23 di. eet cto a ease eee ae ee 16, 000 
Sta OUl a O10. 2 Seca SS aclars Gm Ee a eh ee es ee ene 2, 500 
Abi (SPC) Et Sia cee a a Siri Ries Lae Samet Eee Ok Se aa AA 12, 000 
Utes EN iva atthe Ses iahe atRe rae ay ae Aon ee a 160, 000 
Motalstoreastermvenduo tel a) keke es ee ree ee ee 229, 002 
otal. for lake to: . oot packets mS gE Peg a 3 eee ee 4,598, 090 
The price paid to fishermen for carp varies from about 30 cents per 
100 pounds in the spring months to 2} cents per pound in the winter. 
Taking 13 cents per pound as a fair average, the value of the carp 
catch of 1900 would be $68,971.35. This is an increase of 964,393 
pounds over the catch of 1899, and an increase of valuation of over 
$17,000. As nearly as could be judged at the time, the cateh for 1901 
promised to be about as much larger than that of 1900. No accurate 
statistics have been gathered since that time, but the fishermen say 
that the fishery is still increasing. 
The number of pounds of carp taken in Lake Erie in 1899 equaled 
nearly one-sixteenth of the total catch of fish of all kinds in the lake 
for that year, while the value was about one twenty-second of the 
entire fisheries product. 
In the Mississippi River and the streams tributary to it, especially 
in the Ilinois River, the carp fisheries are of far greater comparative 
importance, and for several years carp have constituted over one-half 
of the total yield of the fisheries of the last-named stream (Townsend, 
