632 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
even 3 cents per pound, a price ten times as great as that of the spring. 
Many of the owners of carp in ponds and pens wait only for the market 
to reach 2 cents per pound, and then fish their ponds and sell the fish. 
If we market our 45 tons at this moderate price, they now bring 
us the sum of $1,800, in comparison with which their original value 
was insignificant. 
It is needless to say that not all who make this venture are so suc- 
cessful. From inexperience or ignorance of the conditions required 
some of the ponds are very unfit for carp, and the mortality is much 
greater than we have estimated above. Orin some cases, especially in 
the pens, the fish have no natural food, and they can be maintained in 
good condition only by feeding them artificially. The cost of this 
must, of course, be deducted from the profits, and may amount to a 
considerable item. Furthermore, the initial cost of constructing a 
pond may constitute a relatively large investment, and account must 
be made also of the necessary labor to maintain it and to care for the 
fish. All these i, “is vary greatly with local conditions, for whereas 
a pond may be constructed and operated very economically in one 
locality, in another place it may prove very expensive. Certain it is, 
however, that small ponds are each year proving an acceptable source | 
of subsidiary income to many farmers whose land is favorably located, 
while individual fishermen and fishing companies are yearly going into 
this business of holding over carp on a more and more extensive scale. 
CCNCLUSIONS. 
As was stated in the introductory remarks at the beginning of this 
report, the main purpose of the investigation was to determine, if 
possible, whether the introduction of the carp into the United States 
had proved a benefit to the country or whether the fish had turned out 
to be so detrimental to the fsheries and other interests that it must be 
considered as a nuisance. In other words, have the twenty-five years 
or more that the carp has lived in our waters, and in which it has 
increased to such a surprising extent, justified the belief of those who 
were instrumental in its introduction that it would fill a place in the 
economics of our fisheries that could not be taken by any of our native 
fish; that it could, with little trouble and at small expense, be artifi- 
cially raised in ponds and other small bodies of water unsuitable for 
the culture of any equally desirable native species, thus affording a 
cheap and ready supply of fresh fish to many who would otherwise be 
unable to have any fish at all; and finally that it would populate such 
of our lakes and streams as were unfavorable for inhabitation by finer 
species, and contained only buffalo, suckers, and the like? 4 
«The good qualities claimed for the carp, which led to its introduction, will be found enumerated 
on page 544. 
