634 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
ity, and rapid growth, it was confidently expected that in a very short time a large 
food supply would be furnished. 
While we believe that the carp will eventually prove a valuable addition to our 
food fishes, and especially fill a want amongst the rural population, still we would cau- 
tion those desiring to engage in this industry to go slow, to test its value for food in 
comparison with our native varieties; to see whether they like carp to eat before they 
spend any considerable sums of money in the construction of ponds, ete. 
Nothing so much injures any enterprise as overestimating its importance. Esti- 
mates are still wanting as to the cost per pound for raising carp, and the fact that 
they can be so readily procured must in a short time make them so plentiful in the 
markets as to bring the price below the cost of production, if one-half of those design- 
ing to engage in their culture should realize their expectations. 
There can be no doubt that the carp isa nutritious and healthy food Gals, but there 
is a doubt whether they will please the taste of the general public who have been 
accustomed to the taste of our native fish. In the trial made by the Commission and 
their friends, when direct comparison has been made with our native fish by cook- 
ing them in the same manner and at the same time, the decision was that they seemed 
inferior to the fish with which they were compared, namely, the black bass and the 
wall-eyed pike. But in the regions where fish, even poor ones, are a luxury they 
will provide a great boon. Ina State so exceptionally well supplied, however, with 
the finest fresh-water fish in the world, as our State is, it is doubtful if the carp will 
become either a favorite food or a source of profit for many years to come. 
Although the carp did not fulfill expectations in the matter of pond 
culture, it has more than done so in the way it has adapted itself to 
conditions found in this country and the rapidity with which it has 
multiplied in our waters; and we find now that, instead of being gen- 
erally used throughout the country and especially in those sections 
where it was thought it would be most appreciated on account of the 
poverty of the streams or the poor quality of their inhabitants, it is 
being sold almost entirely to the poorer classes of people in our large 
cities. The [linois River, together with the other rivers of the Mis- 
sissippi drainage system, is one of those localities in which it was 
thought that carp would be a most valuable accession, and such has 
turned out to be the case, though not in the exact way originally 
expected. Although practically not used at all for home consumption, 
it has nevertheless added very appreciably to the resources of the 
region. 
With our constant immigration of foreigners and the formation and 
growth in our large cities of great foreign settlements, the problem of 
supplying these pede with cheap yet w holesome food becomes 
very great, and anything which helps to meet this demand is of great 
value to the country. From this point of view there is no doubt of 
the value of the carp and the benefit to be derived from its introduc- 
tion. To pervert a common saying, in those places to which it is best 
suited it has made two fish to grow where but one grew before. 
But now come the sportsman and the commercial fisherman, who 
maintain that, while all that has been stated may be true, the presence 
of the carp is entirely supplanting the fish which was there before, 
