LXIII 
The growth of the young fish in both the Druid Hill and 
Washington Ponds has been very marked, some of them 
having attained a length of five to seven inches in one sum-- 
mer. This rapidity of growth may be due to the longer period 
of warm weather in this latitude, and the consequent exten- 
sion of the feeding season. If this hypothesis be correct, it is 
probable that a much greater and more rapid growth will be 
attained in the waters farther south. Many Eastern States 
have been supplied by the U. S. Commission. We believe 
this fish is destined to become, at no distant day, of the 
greatest importance to both the pisciculturist and agricultur- 
ist and, therefore, with a view of acquainting our citizens 
with its history and qualities we make the following extract 
from a letter of the IT. S. Commissioner on the subject: 
Hon. James B. Beck. 
g IR . * * * * * * 4fr 
■X- * * -X- * -X- -X- # 
I have great faith in the future of this new fish, and am quite 
well satisfied that within ten years it will constitute a very 
prominent element in the food animals of the country. Al- 
though scarcely known in the United States, and but little 
more as an article of extended application in England and 
France, it is in Germany and Austria that it is cultivated in 
the highest degree, so as to constitute a notable article of mar- 
ket supply. The fish itself is probably of Asiatic origin, and 
has been domesticated in China for thousands of years. It 
has, however, been so extensively distributed in Europe as to 
have become, in a measure, a native fish, occurring in public 
waters as well as in private enclosures. It is emphatically 
a farmer’s fish, and may safely be claimed to be among fishes 
what chickens are among birds, and pigs and ruminants among 
mammals. Its special merit lies in the fact of its sluggish- 
ness and the ease with which it is kept in very limited en- 
closures, its being a vegetable feeder and its general inofien- 
siveness. Whereas trout and black bass require a supply of 
animal food for their sustenance and growth, the carp, while 
not disdaining flies, worms, larvoe, etc., lives on the succulent 
