Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-09-13
Views on earn Gnltnra


has given expression 10 the following
views on the culture OF German carp,
which may not be unintereStinw TO those
who are engaged in this growing indus
try:
In the immediate future. as in the
past, the subject of breeding carp will
engross large share of the fish cultur-
lists attention. Ii it is worthy of uni
verSal dissemination. may ii be acceler-
ated by al interested parties. and II un-
worthy, let them denOunce il. COnsid-
cradle research on my part has diScOv-
cred the following facts relating to the
carp or ciprinedGe family which con-
tains about 270 species, the best known
being the c. Guratus, or goldfish. The
common carp, c. cGyipO, has been bred
in the Old World for centuries. and the
German carp, C. cdrjSsiuS. also called
crucian, and by Prof. Baird, of the u.
S. Fish Commission, the leather carp,
for a long time by the Europeans.
The German carp is the best in
quality, and when al are poor, this is a
desideratum in choosing which to plant.
1t thrives best in warm, sluggish water,
in which are many grasses and weeds
growing from 4 muddy bed. and in 4
temperate zone or climate. 1t will
thrive in nearly every portion of our
country, but in the colder parts, its fe-
cundity aud remarkable growth are ma
terially decreased.
From 100000 to 100000 eggs are
produced yearly, and deposited in the
summer months, on bushes or grasses
in the water, by medium sized carp.
and the eggs hatch in about two weeks
(from ten to twenty days, according to
the temperature), if they are not eaten
by the fish or brushed off into the mud.
Under favorable circumstances these
carp fry attain length of from three
TO four inches by September when the
growth ceases, and shortly after, or in
December ut the latest, they with the
larger carp in groups of fifty or more,
enter an excavation made in the mud
called q kettle where they remain
with heads little lower than the BODY.
and each pointed to q grand centre. At
the return OF warm weather, they leave
the kettle and deep water, and com
mence feeding on aquatic plants. If
the climate is warm and the growth of
weeds and water grasses eXuberant, or.
if fed on lettuce, cabbage, boiled pota-
toes, soaked barley, or, if they have ac-
cess to sewage, the four-inch carp may
be twenty inches long in the fall, and
instances are given where they have at
tanned a length of two feet. Carp in
Europe do not grow after the thirty
fifth year, but specimens have been
found over 40 years old. Thirty to
fifty pounds in weight, 81 feet in length
and thirty-three inches in circumfer-
ence, are numerousiy recorded Us carp
weights and measures, and ninety
pounds being the largest weight have
seen of the German variety.
The carp is not carniverous, neither
does it subsist entirely on aquatic vege-
tatiOn and kitchen or brewers waste,
but frequently devours worms and small
insects found in the water and it may
be made q desirable assistant to q man S
comfort by putting it into ponds of
stagnant water where mosquitoes de-
post their eggs. The fish will destroy
myriads of mosquitoes when the latter
are 'wrigglers' The crucian or Ger
man carp is not classed with the game
fishes, neither does it take the bait read
lily, but when hooked it dies game and
will live longer out of water than a
horn pout. Bread paste balls sweeten-
ed with honey, and favored with spir-
ltuouS liquor, green peas, small boiled
potatoes. and bits of lettuce, are princi-
pally used for bait.
''TO those contemplating to plant this
fish, let me give some of the objections
to breeding carp. First, and most i'm
portant, il, like other fish grown in
stagnant and muddy waters, is of sec
ond rate quality at the best; it viii not
thrive in water having a rocky, gravelIy
OF sandy bed; it is not a favOrite with
the genuine angler; can be caught only
in the summer season and will not
thrive in small streams nor in rapidly
flowing ones
IF any reader Of the Farmer has a
pond, around the edge OF which there
is rank growth of water grasses, and
the greater part of the bed is soft mud,
then | will advise him to stock it with
German carp, bat to 90 to the expense
of making an artificial pond for the
production of this fish, or to plant them
in one where land-locked salmon, brook
trout, lake trout, pickerel or bass will
thrive, will be an act of which [ think
he viii repent at an early day. But [
am very sanguiae in the belief that fish
culture is yet in its infancy, ard that
this promising industry must be con-
Quoted with great care and discretion
to make it what it should be, one of the
sources of revenue for the
rural people. -
The Disnnuaru Of Rn1linr Irnn.