874 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Nc?v. 4, 1005 . 
In Defense of the Carp* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have read with much interest your editorial on the 
“Curse of the Carp,” and the ]>aper by Mr. Starbuck, 
which gave you your text. Neither the editorial siric- 
ture.s nor Mr. Starbuck’s alarmist cry has persuaded me 
that lire carp is anything to be worried about. On the 
other hand, it is a valuable addition to our food supply, 
and 1 am sending you an argument to this effect con- 
tained in the last report of the Fish and Game Commis- 
sion of lllinoi.s. As w'e all know, President S. H. Cohen, 
of the Commission, always has been a defender of the 
fish, and presumably this present exposition is from his 
pen : 
As in former seasons, we find the carp well to the front, 
as an article of food and money producer, and we see no 
reason to'find any fault with them from any standpoint. 
We have given the subject serious and close attention 
because of the great amount of unfavorable criticism it 
Ips received all over the country, but with our knowledge 
of the real situation in regard to them we feel that their 
introduction has been of real benefit to a large majority 
of the public. Illinois, as has been frequently stated, is 
a large State, nearly 400 miles in extent from north to 
smith. It is intersected in every direction by streams, ad- 
jacent to w'hich are wide, rich bottoans filled w ith lakes, 
shallow for the most part, and filled only by the overflows 
of- the rivers. With thousands of acres of such water 
specially adapted to the rapid growth of the carp, and 
used but little by the game fishes, why should it not be 
Utilized in producing good, cheap food for the people? 
It cannot be done to advantage w'ith other fishes, so that 
nothing is sacrificed to the carp. The Illinois River. 250 
miles long, as a navigable stream, is for the greater part 
of it an ideal stream for such fi.'^hes. The spring lakes, 
adjacent, and of which there are thousands, afford ample 
breeding places for the bass and other gamier varieties. 
Fox Lake, which is a part of the head of the river, has 
been and always will be one of the greatest breeding 
grounds in the country for game fishes, which find their 
w-ay into the Illinois River, and there they find plenty of 
food to their taste in the carp and its product of spawn 
and fry. ■ _ 
That the commercial side of the industry is a large 
one can be easily verified by consulting the reports from 
the various cities along this river. Take from the towns 
of the Illinois River the fishing industry and it would 
practically put most of them out of business, and a per- 
sonal investigation of the conditions existing there wull 
demonstrate the correctness of this assertion. We clip 
the following from the Bloomington Pantagraph of Sept. 
II, 1904. It is a clear statement of facts, evidently taken 
by the writer from personal investigation : 
“The Illinois River, it is claimed, furnishes more fish 
than any other in the United States, with the single ex- 
ception of the Columbia in Oregon. The product of the 
latter river is largely salmon, while the Illinois furnishes 
in greater or less abundance fully eighty kinds. Havana, 
in Mason county, is the largest market for fish there is 
on the Ijlinois, and more is shipped from that town, it is 
claimed, than from any other place along the river. 
“Up to Nov. I there had been shinned from Havana by 
freight 1.300,000 pounds of fish, while fully one-third as 
many more had been shipped by express and sold at home 
to peddlers. The peddlers’ trade is very large, as scores 
of towns depend for their supply on local people, who 
ship in fish from Havana and retail them from house to 
house. The finer grades, too, are usually sent by e.xpress 
to the eastern cities, so that it will be quite within the 
truth to say that fully 2 000.000 pounds of fish will be 
shipped from Havana during the year of 1904. 
“Nearly or quite half of the fish shipments consist of 
German carp. Next comes buffalo, then bull pouts, then 
dogfish, then white perch, then sunfish, then black bass, 
then' catfish, then crappies, then striped bass, then turtles. 
These are the principal varieties that are shipped, but 
there are some eighty sorts caught in this river. 
“A good many varieties of fish never attain an adult 
length of more than five inches. These are commonly 
taken for the young of other fishes, and are referred to 
indiscriminately as ‘minnows’ by the uninformed. 
“Another important factor is that at least sixty fishes 
of the rivers of Illinois have no common names, and that 
such names as bass, perch, stoneroller, hornyhead, grindle, 
stickleback, etc., all have more than one application, the 
same name being applied not infrequently to very different 
fishes. 
Up to Nov. I there have been shipped from Havana 
fifty-five carloads of fresh fish. Each car contains 26,000 
pounds on an average, the carloads ranging from 20,000 
to ,32,000. pounds, each. Fish are always packed in boxes 
holding just 150 pounds. From 150 to 200 of these boxes 
constitute a carload. These boxes are three feet and six 
inches long by eighteen inches wide, all being new. There 
is a , factory at Havana where these fish boxes are made, 
wdiich gives employment to some fifteen men constantly. 
The wholesale price of these boxes is 43 cents apiece and 
25,000 are annually made. The cities of Pekin and Bath 
both get their supply there as well as Havana. 
“Without ice there could be no shipping of fish during 
the greater portion of the year. Ice is a very important 
factor and immense quantities are used during the spring, 
summer and fall months. Ice is put up at Havana from 
ne.yby ponds and from Spoon River. Ice from the Illi- 
nois River is not r made use of. All fish are packed in 
layers of broken ice, it requiring four tons just for the 
boxes in one car. In addition to this amount seven tons 
are used in each car containing fresh fish, making a total 
of eleven tons for every car. During the year some loo 
cars are sent from Havana, so it can easily be seen that 
the ice trade there is g. big thing. About a third as much 
more is used for packing the fish that go by express, and 
that are taken away by peddlers. 
“All coarser sorts of fish are sent by freight in carload 
lots, while the choicer kinds are shipped by express in 
much smaller packages. New York city furnishes the 
greatest market for German carp. This fish seems to be 
a favorite article of diet for the poorer Jews of many 
Eastern cities, and large quantities are sent to Bo.ston, 
Baltimore. Philadelphia as well as to Chicago, St. Louis 
and Southern cities. 
“In every Northern city carp can be found on the 
menus of many re'-taurants and good hotels. At the 
Waldorf-Astoria cafe carp with Rhine wine sauce is 
quoted at sixty-five cents per portion, just the same as 
fresh mackerel. Kansas City and Memphis are also large 
users of carp from Havana. 
“Carp WTre introduced into the Illinois River some fif- 
teen j'ears ago. but are already largely in the ma'ority and 
may soon claim sole occupancy of that water. They wmre 
planted by the United Slates Fish Commission, but have 
increased in numbers so ranidly as to threaten the life 
tenures of all other fishes there. 
‘‘Carp do not eat other fish as a rule, as is commonly 
supposed, but they are enormoiuly prolific, are voracious 
eaters and grow very rapidly. Like the English snarrow 
they monopolize the territory and the other fish are 
starvedpout. They eat moss, as do other fish, but b'^ing 
pugnacious they keep the other fish from the feeding 
grounds. They also dig deeply into the m”d stirring up 
the water and making it so muddy and thick that other 
varieties of fish which require clear water die off nuickly. 
‘‘Carp grrow t" ice as fast as do other fish. .\t eig-hleen 
months they will frequently weigh 3 pounds if they have 
plenty to eat. 
“Buffalo are a higher-priced fish than carp, the latter 
retailing in the large cities as low as five cents a pound. 
Buffalo are a favorite fish in the South, and large quanti- 
ties are sent from Havana to Memphis, St. Louis, Lexing- 
ton, Atlanta and Vicksburg. Crappies, sunfish and catfish 
come next in noint of demand. 
‘‘There are four wholesale dealers at Havana. These 
men own tugboats and lease extensive fishing grounds, 
one man, Capt. John A. Schulte, himself owning 3,000 
acres and leasing as many more. Mr. Schulte has been in 
the business there for thirty-two years, and is reckoned 
to b« worth fully $100,000. Each of these wholesale deal- 
ers own a large market boat, which is stationed at the 
foot of Main street, and here their fishermen come daily 
with tugboats of fish, freshly caught. 
“At these market boats the fish are packed in boxes, 
150 pounds of fish and too pounds of ice being olaced in 
each box. Catfi.sh are always skinned. Other fish, when 
shipped east or north, are sent aw^ay whole, but for the 
western and southern trade they are always dressed, that 
is, they have their heads taken off and their intestines re- 
moved. This is one of the peculiarities of the trade. The 
freight on a carload of fish from Havana to New York 
averages $235 per load. 
“Dealers own many boats and employ many fishermen. 
Quarter boats; that is, quarters for provisions and 
cooking, are sent out to the grounds, which are not 
always in the Illinois River, some eitcellent grounds 
being located in adjacent lakes and creeks. These 
men are paid good wages and like the life. As in other 
occupations, some save money and others are always 
in debt, it depending on the man. It is claimed, though, 
tl>at when a man once becomes a regular fisherman he 
seldom goes into any other occupation. There are also 
private fishermen who dispose of their catches to the 
dealers, but the latter are not numerous. 
“Fish are caught in seines and set-nets, never by hook 
and line, except by amateurs, d'he State guard the fish 
rigidly, and inspectors ivatch every catch to see that all 
fish are of the proper length and size, others being re- 
turned unharmed to the water. No seines at all can be 
used during the spawning season, which is from April 
15 to June I. 
“The fish heads and intestines are used for fertilizers 
for garden patches and as food for fowls, being much 
in demand. Seines are from 8co to 1,500 yards long, and 
eight men are required to make a haul. Usually 5,000 
pounds of fish is an average haul. These seines are 
thrown out from boats, and are drawn in to shore by 
hand. Seines are from 12 to 24 feet deep, although lake 
seines are deeper than those used in the river. Seines 
cost from $500 to $750 apiece, and are made largely in 
Chicago, although some are manufactured in Joliet and 
St. Louis. Set-nets are made at home, and sell for 
about $7- each. Capt. Schulte has 300 nets and four 
seines. All seines and nets are tarred twice ■ a year 
in order to preserve them. Over 250 barrels of tar are 
used each year for this purpose at Havana, it being 
shipped from Jacksonville, where it is produced by the 
gas company. Two hundred men are employed the 
year round in fishing wuthin ten miles of Havana.” 
At the meetings of the American Fisheries Society, 
at whose annual meeting all matters of interest re- 
lating to the propagation and protection of fishes are 
taken up and discussed, the carp question seems to 
come up regularly as a question for discussion. When 
it is considered that for years none but adverse reports 
on the carp had been entertained by the members of 
this society and all kinds of crimes had been attributed 
to this fish, it is pleasant to observe what a radical 
change has taken place in public sentiment in regard 
to its merits. The Pennsylvania Fish Commission has 
secured legislation making it a misdemeanor to plant 
carp, and one of, the members in- discussing the carp, 
said: “I am stating the cold, hard fact, when I say 
that the Legislature of Pennsylvania has practically 
declared it an' outlaw by prohibiting- the planting of it 
any longer in our waters,” On the other hand, a mem- 
ber from Michigan said: “I think the carp was sent 
here as a blessing to the poor. The carp is here to 
stay, and all the barrels of money we can open tvill not 
destroy them. I like them and am going to keep on 
eating them.” Mr. Titcomb, Of the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission, said: 
“I did not intend to say anything on this carp ques- 
tion. _ It has been threshed over at every meeting, and 
still it comes up. I was only going to say that it seems 
to resolve itself into a sectional question; it is a 
sectional issue. For instance, with our present knowl- 
edge of the carp, we would not ship them to the waters of 
Maine, or the waters of Pennsylvania, but there are a 
great many States in the Union where the carp to-day 
is a very valuable food fish, and where the people enjoy 
it on the table; there are places even where they enjoy 
It as a game fish to catch with hook and line. The 
United States Bureau of Fisheries continues to receive 
applications for carp, which, owing to this feeling in 
certain sections of the country and among the in- 
fluential classes of sportsmen, perhaps, are not distrib- 
uted any longer; the people who have asked for them 
then refuse to take_ any other fish in many instances, 
and are often quite indignant because they cannot have 
the carp. Some of them persist until they find out 
where they can secure the carp and take them to their 
own private ponds. But all through the West there are 
waters that can be made very useful by the introduction 
of the carp, and which otherwise are pfactically un- 
productive. I think I have told this stOry once before 
the society, but I will tell it again. When I was presi- 
dent of a fish and game association, all of the members 
sportsmen, some of them commissioners from the New 
England States, others commissioners of fisheries from. 
Canada, 224 in number, we sat down to a table on one 
occasion and ate carp under the name of baked red 
snapper. Most of them knew they were not eating- 
baked red snapper; some of the old lake fishermen told 
me they thought they were eating whitefish; another one 
said pike-perch; all declared them delicious. ‘As you 
know, a rose would smell as sweet by any other name.’ ” 
It is true carp are vegetable feeders, and in small, 
clear lakes are destructive to vegetation, and for such 
places or for small rivers may be, in some sense, ob- 
jectionable; but the question with us is and has been. 
Are not the benefits derived greater than the damages? 
In the natural adjustment of the fishes of our waters the 
percentage of coarse fishes to the game varieties is 
largely in excess, but from various causes this baknee 
has been largely decreased, and to replace this deficit 
is undoubtedly the proper work of the Commission, arid 
the carp has been the means by which we have done it. 
For many years the buffalo fish was the principal 
coarse fish of our -narkets, and the most common one 
produced by Illinois waters. .The time was when every 
blade of .grass in the overflows- from the river was 
covered with their spawn, and the fish themselves Were 
seen in these shallow waters in thousands during the 
spawning or “rolling” season. Then the people took 
them in thousands and with almost every device avail- 
able, and they were shipped to markets mostly outside 
of the State, on commission, and as a rule, only a small 
proportion were realized on, the rest, owing to glutted 
markets, were thrown away, an immense quantity of 
good food being thus lost to the people of the State, 
this practice continued for years, until the waters of the 
State were nearly depleted of this variety of fish, and 
even after protective laws, preventing such wholesale 
destruction, were obtained, the increase was so slow that 
the output showed but little gain. This loss to the mar- 
ket was made good by the introduction of the carp, 
cyhich grows and increases rapidly, hardy, tenacious of 
fife, and defying unfavorable seasons, it has retored to 
the waters the natural balance of the proportions of 
coarse fish to fine, so rigidly held as a prime necessity 
to successful fishculture by the scientific fishculturists. 
Now we have them in large quantities. They are good 
food, good producers. ,.,,-They have some faults, but more 
good qualities, and as a money producer they are un- 
equalled by uny or all of the ocaer fishes of the Illinois 
inland water. If we, as Commissioners, are to deal with 
sentiment only and consider it our duty to propagate 
and protect only such fishes as are . of interest to the 
anglers, eliminating the question of food supply from 
our work, then perhaps the carp is a “mistake,” but 
if the law creating a fish commission was made with 
a view to tlie interests of the people as a whole, and 
the duty of that commission was to endeavor to make 
the waters of the State produce their full share of food 
for the people, then one of the wisest moves of the 
U. S. Fish Commission was in introducing the carp, 
which is here to stay, and this fact will ultimatelv be 
appreciated by the whole people. 
Now, we do not wish to be understood as in an}^ way 
antagonistic to the angler element, or as dealing with 
their sport as a matter of sentiment only. 'We believe 
in the protection of the game fishes and in their de- 
vclopment, but as one 'cannot well change nature’s laws, 
and in the waters of Illinois it is impossible to raise 
game fishes exclusively or in such numbers as to make 
them sufficient for the necessary supply for food, why 
is it not economy to encourage the coarse fish, which, 
while producing good food and plenty of it, will fill 
the -w'aters to the limit of their capacity? 
With us carp are not spawn eaters, but do destroy 
vegetation, and, as stated, are detrimental to clear lakes 
and -rivers; but. they get into them, and we are doing , 
the best 'we can to relieve the situation in that respect, 
as will appear, by anoth.er section of this report. Im- 
mense catches of carp are reported for the season of 
1904, all along the Illinois River. Bass are more plen- 
tiful than ever. This seems to speak for Itself as to 
results. 
