'4 



the introduction and distribution of the species by the general government, 

 the latter was solely responsible for the present continental distribution of 

 the fish, and to it, as represented by the National Fish Commission, must be 

 ascribed whatever credit or blame is due. In his 1878 report to Congress, 

 Professor Baird said: 



"The carp has been domesticated in Europe from time immemorial, and 

 represents among the finny tribe the place occupied by poultry among birds. 

 It is a fish adapted to the farmer's ponds and to mill-dams, less so to clear, 

 gravelly rivers with a strong current. -Where there is quiet water, with 

 muddy bottom and abundant vegetation, there is the home of the carp; 

 there it will grow with great rapidity, sometimes attaining a weight of three 

 to four pounds in as many years. It is a vegetable feeder and not dependent 

 upon man for its sustenance. As an article of food, the better varieties rank 

 in Europe with. the trout and bring the same price per pound." 



The limitations of the carp, as thus defined and as recognized and 

 acknowledged at the time of its introduction, have been to a great 

 extent overlooked or ignored, and to this is to be attributed much of 

 the carp's disrepute. It has been planted under conditions as inap- 

 propriate as would be the stocking of a gamebird preserve with foxes 

 or the raising of rabbits in a meadow overrun with hounds. 



The indictment against the carp in America is long and formidable. 

 It is charged with being unfit for human food, with being very in- 

 jurious to other and better fishes, and with being very destructive to 

 ducks and other wild fowl by nprootiug the wild celery on which they 

 feed, to say nothing of various minor accusations. 



It is not necessary to discuss these points, and it will suffice to say 

 (i) that special investigation has shown the carp does exceedingly 

 little harm to any other fish, as any one would expect from its known 

 habits and anatomical peculiarities; (2) that the injury done to the 

 feeding grounds of wild fowl has been grossly exaggerated : On one 

 hand, a scarcity of ducks may occur entirely independently of the 

 presence of carp, and, on the other, a great abundance of carp may be 

 coexistent with the undiminished growth of wild celery; and (3) that 

 the carp is a food fish of very great importance, and to say anything 

 to the contrary. is to ignore facts. 



We may profitably dwell a little on this last point, because few 

 people are aware of the economic value of this fish at the present time 

 or appreciate the role it must inevitably continue to play in this country, 

 for the carp is already the most widely distributed American fish ; it 

 can no longer be regarded as an alien ; and it is here to stay. 



As a food fish the carp has many superiors. I do not eat it and see 

 no reason why people so favorbly situated as are those who live on the 

 seaboards, the Great Lakes, and the various interior waters should eat 

 carp ; but there are millions of our people who can not obtain the de- 

 licious trout, shad, salmon, black bass, striped bass, halibut, mackerel, 

 or smelt ; or who, if they ever see these fish, find them, like the peas 

 porridge of the nursery rhyme, "nine days old" or more, and nine times 

 inferior to a fresh carp. It is to the many people who must eat carp 

 or no fish, or no better fish, that this food comes as a special boon, 

 although the consumption, even in many of the eastern sea coast towns, 

 is surprisingly large. 



