Smyrna times., 1885-11-11
A Carp Fish Dinner.
VISIT TO A FISH POND

oJher method is at the same time so
pleasant and conclusive. 1t was with
this end in view that Rev. J. S. Willis
and Secretary of State F. w. Causey,
of Milford; DR.. J. H. Wilson and Sam
uel d. McGonigal, of Dover; DIR. E.
Dawson, of Frederick and the writer, of
Smyrna, met by invitation at the hos
pitable mansion of Thomas B. COursey,
at Spring mills, near Frederick, on
Thursday last, to test the merit of Ger
man carp served at his table from his
own pond, where they had grown to
their present state of maturity. State
Fish Commissioner EnOch Moore, of
Wilmington was expected to be pres
ent but was prevented by sickness,
which was much regretted.
1t was new dish perhaps to every
member eff the party and they entered
on the entertainment with very indif-
ferent ideas as to whether the palate
test would be decidedly in its favor. II
is sometimes the case that compliment
tary expressions on festive occasions
are given with u mental reservation,
| but every man backed his compliment
by getting away" with the generous
supply that loaded his plate. Secre-
tary Causey said it was excellent; that
| from what he had heard of the carp he
had no idea that il was so delicate and
palatable. So thought the others and
Rev. Mr.. Willis said that it fully de-
cided him to have fish pond Of his
own, if he could draw from it such lux
uries whenever he desired, as was
spread before him. The largest of the
fish, leather carp, weighing seven and
one-half pounds, was baked. Two
others, scale carp, were boiled and
! served with drawn butter. A gener-
Gus section OF each, with sauces, pota-
toes and coffee served the first course:
this was followed by roast turkey,
beef, Nansemond sweet potatoes. oyS-
ters and the usual concomitants of a
full meal, winding up with cake and
ice cream, the hour and half at the
table being interspersed with some
good stories and narratiOns Of personal
incidents.
The next thing was to inspect the
premises, the chief being the ponds and
the fish themselves. The first i'm order
after passing the fruit evaporator (Mr.
COursey's own construction was con-
slant running stream of water through
a halfinch pipe, into a tank or trough
in his barnyard where the stock was
watered, the overflow passing on
through a drain out of sight i'm the
same way that it had entered. This
stream of water is coming in every
moment of the twenty-four hours.
Mr. COursey said we would reverse the
usual method of going from cause to
effect by going from effect to cause. a
! us..I Iir Of, i.
scending slope bringing us to "a stream
Of spring water in which was a hy-
draulic ram with the neVer-ceasing
stroke from the water pressure, driving
the water up the hill through pipe a
distance of 500 feet, the perpendicular
elevation being thirty feet. At this
this place he was also having a new
fish pond constructed, the third in
number. Jast over the hill on the op-
posite side of the raVine was another
object that Mr.. COursey felt quite as
much pride in as his fish, namely, a
full-grOwn woods of chestnut and pine
trees of twelve or fifteen acres that he
himself had planted, thing perhaps
not another man in the State can saw.
He was born and raised in Camden and
commenced business for himself at the
Wyoming Mills, but after five years he
bought and moved to Spring Mills. his
present home. This was in the year
1910, fOrty-iive years ago. Under the
system of farming of that day this
piece of ground had become too poor
to grow paying crop and having no
timber but II plenty of other land to
engage his time in improving, he de-
clded to plant it in the timber above
named. He has been drawing on this
for fuel and saw logs for the past twen-
ty years and there is still fine growth
OF young pines, seventy-five or eighty
feet high, seeded from the first planting
and enough chestnut trees if cut to
fence in his farm. One of the chestnut
trees year ago made over five hun
dred feet of board for fencing, and
some of the largest stumps measured
three feet across them. He is still
planting nuts occasionally, and is de-
termined to leave the world, as far as
timber Is concerned, better than he
found it. None of the party was too
dignitied to stOOp for chestnut when
he saw its brown coat shining amid the
leaves, and there were not a few of the
latter kicked aside in quest of the fine
nuts.
CATCHING AND EXAMINING THE FISH.
The next move brought them to
the carp ponds, their special object of
visit. Here the party was reinforced
by Mr.. and Mrs. Warren Darby, of
Frederick Mrs. DR.. Dawson, Mrs. DIR.
Wilson, and Miss Sallie COursey, who
had so well filled the Office of hostess.
1t was an interesting half hour or more
and enjoyed by the whole party. The
water had been let off through a gate
designed for the purpose, and with a
scoop net they were gathered up from
the shallow pools where they would
cluster. The object of course would
be to gather the larger fellows which
seemed to be possessed of the usual
fish sense to keep out of danger as
much as possible, but when secured
would wallOp in the net with the same
force and very much the outline of the
shad. The scale and leather carp are
very distinct in their appearance, the
latter much the prettier fish. The
catching pond is connected with
another above and when the inspection
was over the former was very soon re-
supplied with water. There is still
another pond on the opposite side of
the stream which was first used i'm the
propagation. Mr.. COursey has had
some bad luck which has reduced his
stock and he has now only about one
hundred fish. One night nearly all
his fish were stolen out of his first pond:
another time heavy tide (the mill is
situated on the head waters of Muir
Gerkill creek, broke the bank: and
still another time the muskrats cut the
dam of another pond, leaving him
less than thirty fish. One of these. the
same age as the largest one served
at the dinner, was subsequently caught
III the creek near Frederick, which
pulled down the scales at fourteen and
one-half pounds, which was proof that
they would thrive amazingly when al
lowed free range in our streams of
water Notwithstanding these dis
cOuragements Mr. COursey is an enthu-
siast on the subject of carp culture and
Is not to be diverted from his purpose
though he has combined enemy in
water snakes, bull frogs, eels, swapping
turtles, &c. He is thoroughly con,
vinced that if the fish could be pro-
tected until they are the size of sun
fish they would be fully able to take
care of themselves when transferred
to our creeks and mill ponds. and
thinks that if the State would make