Report of the commissioner for 1877.

  • United States Fish Commission
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioner for 1877. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    57/1134 (page 41)
    f The propagation of this fish is prosecuted on every imaginable scale, from that just mentioned down to a tank holding not more than a few cubic feet. In China, indeed, it is said that carp are reared to a very great extent in ordinary washtubs and fed with vegetable refuse. In Germany, again, there is a regular alternation on the same ground, from carp cultivation to that of the cereals or other plants, and after a certain number of years the ponds are drawn off, allowed to dry and seeded or planted until one or two crops are obtained, when the water is again turned on and the carp reintroduced. There are several species of American Catostomidcc which might in all probability answer in some measure, if not fully, in place of the carp. Among them are especially the buffalo fish, a large sucker, the flesh of which is much esteemed. As, however, some special varieties of carp have been developed and had their instinct of domestication established, while experiments on our indigenous species are scarcely yet tried, there is no reason why time should be lost with the less proved species. In carp culture quite a number of varieties are known. The species in its original condition is not very different in shape from a gold-fish, and is of an olivaceous color, and distinguished by four barbels about the mouth, these being inappreciable or wanting in the gold-fish. Where the carp is kept in ponds, and where its habits are necessarily sluggish, the body is thick and stout, and the fish tender and delicate. In run- ning water, however, the back is sharper and the body more slender, the result of increased muscular activity consequent upon different sur- roundings. The two principal varieties of carp produced by cultivation are the mirror and the leather carp. In the mirror carp all the scales of the body have disappeared, with the exception of a few scales along the vertical outlines, and those along the lateral line. The leather carp goes a step beyond this, and is destitute of all scales excepting a few along the line of the back; sometimes they are entirely wanting. The difference between the two, however, is not very great, both being con- sidered much superior to the scale carp, which is best known. It is stated that the cross between the Cyprinus carpio and the Prussian (7. carassius, as also one between the gold-fish and C. carassius, are all known as carp; and the fact that they all represent the greater part of the fish of that name in France and England, lias given the idea of the inferior- ity of the carp. It is only in Germany that the different branches are kept distinct and their comparative merits appreciated. The best of these are said to be of very superior quality, ranking with the European trout in point of price and estimation; indeed, it is on these in the in- terior of Germany that the population depend very largely for its sup- ply °f fish needed for church requirements and the general wants of the table. As already stated, I have for a long time attached much importance to the introduction of carp into the United States of America, as sup- plying an often-expressed want of a fish for the South, representing the