The Portland daily press., 1890-01-11
KEEPING up FOOD and SPORT SUPPLY.
klnety-Two Thousand Salmon
Matched In the Penobscot.
Attempt TO Introduce the Carp In
dustry from Germany.
what the United States Elsh Com
missioner Is Doing.

what the United States EIsh Com
missioner Is Doing.
WASHINGTON Jan. l0-The chief of the
United States Fish Commission, Col. Nc
Donald, In making his annual report. de-
votes considerable space to the food and
| sporting fish of our inland waters. First, in
regard to that royal fish for the sportsman
and the epicure. the salmon, Col. Mcdonald
reports that the work of the fish commission
is directed to the keeping up OF the fisheries
Of the New England rivers and to the main
tainins Of the great commercial fisheries of
the Pacific. In Maine there are two kinds of
salmon to be looked after--the PenobsOt
salmon that comes up from the sea each
year, and the landlocked salmon, which is
only found in few of the Maine lakes. Up
to within two years of the present rime. tile
attention of the commission has been de-
voted to the Matching and distribution Of
Try; but now 1t has gone into the business OF
raising salmon. Last year ninety-two thou
sand such lingering Penobscot salmon werr
planted, as well as great number OF the
landlocked variety. not TO meutipn millions
missions and elsewhere. On the west coast
thirteen million salmon fry few weeks old
were distributed In the twelvemonths, thr
salmon required for eggs being arrested in
their passage up the streams by tracks,"
which permitted the water TO fi'rw through,
hut detained the fish. The McCluud River
station keeps up the supply OF salmon In the
Sacramento and its tributaries, while the
Station on the Clacquemine River provides
for the Columbia River basin; and thus the
pa * liant Qnnnlied with aalInnO
The trout propagated by the Fish Commis-
sion are mainly intended for distribution 10
the Rocky Mountion region, IT, which they
are apparently best ADAPTED Not only the
trout of the east coast, bat also the trout Of
the west coast Of the United States-the two
quite different fshes-and even the Euro
pean trout, expressly imported, are reared
by the commission. The European trout l.
not so pretty as the American variety, but
much more gamey; 1t will never rise to fiy
that has touched the water long enough to
be wet The great station for trout hatch
ing Is now in process OF construction at
Leadville. Col. The commission has been
distributing 900 900 yearliDg Trout annually.
An industry which the Fish Commission
has only recently developed concerns the
collection of the indigenous fishes of the
Mississippi valley, which. after the floods.
are annually left 10 overflow ponds on the
lOwlands, where they must die when the
water dries up. But the agents Of the Com
mission draw those ponds with seines, se-
lect the breeding fish of such varieties as the
bass. the rock bass, the pickerel, the perch.
and the spotted catfish. and. conveying
them to the railways, ship them all over the
interior States. The fish not desired are
thrown back into the rivers. Tins these
overflow ponds are made to serve as natural
hatching-grounds, very economically.
The Commission has sent great many of
our native fsh-such AS the land-lOcktd sal
mon, the black bass, the white fish, and thu
rainbow trout to countries abr ad; but.
although they are willing to reclprocate, IL
has not been In their power, because W.
have pretty nearly all the fish worth having
III this country; in fact We are better suprli-
I'd than any other country In the world. To
Mexico so large an assortment Of fishes has
been sent that the Fish Commission there
has been fairly put on its feet by contribu-
lions from the United States.
The carp gets considerable attention also
from the commissioner. This fish Is an EN-
migrant, an assisted one at that; sixty-dve OF
the family were brought over at government
the carp-through the reproductive efforts OF
these original pilgrims-has become one of
the most plentiful and widely distributed
TODD fishes in this country. In some States
II the Union the business OF prOpagating
carp artlfcially has grown TO be an import
ant industTy-fOr example, in the vicinity of
Denver, Col, where they are raised by the
thousands to marketable size in the reser-
vuirs constructed fer purposes of irrigation.
fOud supply has been prosecuted for ever So
long on an enormous scale Que place Col
"nel Mcdonald spoke Of yesterday, WHERE
he had found five thousand acres drvote d IT,
growing this kind of fish for the Hamburg
market. Carp in the fatherland are looked
upon as product of the land just as much
as corn, wheat OF potatoes; they are even
concerned to an important extent in the rO-
tatiun of corps; for the farmer, having de-
voted certain of his acres for a term of years
to an overflow produced by dainming a
stream-thus being enabled to maintain
carp p0nd-destroys the da n as soon as he
dnds that the fish are beginning to do not
very well, drains off the water and pl0ugh>
the freshly-expOsed soil for the planting Of
vegetables. According to the demand. the
carp are drawn from the ponds and sent IT,
the fish dealers, who sell them alive. Ths
consumers pick out the fish they want,
swimming around in tanks, aud the dealer
either kills them and has them delivered
dead or wraps them In damp cloths, putting
a soap of bread soaked in beer into the
mouth Of each, so that they may be killed
ike chickens upon being received OF course,
they are not good to eat while they are
spawning, ana so, in order to prevent their
being unstable at any season, anumber of
pike-peIch are put into each pond. to keep
The carp continually stirred up and annoyed
To such an extent that excitement will dOm-
mate the Instinct of reproduction, and they
will not spawn ut all. To Eat the minnOws
which otherwise would fatten upon the food
INTENDED for the carp, black bass, imported
for the purpose FROM America, are placed in
the German ponds. A certain number Of
the fish are planted by the carp-farmer to
each acre of newly stocked, just as so many
seeds would be suwn, and the result In the
shape OF marketable produce Is figured upon
with equal eXactnesS
1t is only question of time when this
business OF raising carp for market Will he
come gigantic industry In this country,
The progeny of the original sixty-fve
already been distributed In the United States
to more than one hundred Thousand ponds
and sluggish streams. There Is not a county
In any one of the states OF the Union where
they have not been introduced, and v hen IL
is considered that each carp grows In three
years To weigh as many pounds. and lays
from fifty thousand to three hundred thou
sand eggs at a single spawn, u will BE- seen
that the "pot-fshermen" will find It hard
work to keep down their numbers. At the
present time ten million pounds OF carp are
consumed In America annually, value Of
81, 900, 600 being thus added tn the yearly
food supply. This has not Teen realized by
the public, for the reason that carp do not APP
pear In the markets. to any great extent;
they are mostly taken by consumers from
the streams and ponds. thus realizing the
most important object of the Fish Commits
sion, which was to bring to the farmers
doors a new sort Of food, giving needed vari-
ETY. to their tables and amusement to their
children. The carp have rather disappointed
the sportsmen, who, having read what Sir
Isaac Walton has to say about their gamey
qualities, expected to find great fun IN an
Cling for them. But the carp Is mighty
hard fish to catch-that, indeed, was the
particular quality that pleased Sir Isaac;
and, instead of biting, he Is apt to prefer to
poke his nose into the mud bottom aud pay
not the slightest attention to the most srduc-
tive balts. Even If you go into the pond
with seine, the carp cannot be dragged out,
brcause they know enOugh-no other h>h
ever was so wise-t0 get down into the mud
and avoid the swoop of the net. The irriga-
ton reservoirs of the West, beyond doubt,
will be eventually utilized most pr0ftably In
the rearing of carp. Uuquestionably. there
is money It it. Three years ago the Indian
agent at Albuquerque, at his own request,
was sent by Colonel Mcdonald three hun
| bred carp, the object In view being to inter
| est the Indians in the business. The latter
constructed ponns. planted The fish, and last
| wear sold over $500 worth Of carp Of their
| own rearing. All the thousands OF millions
| of carp now In this country are descended
| from the sixty-tive individuals planted In the
| Fish Commissions ponds near the Washing
| ton Monument; from these ponds are dis
| tributpd $4,000 of the fi>h every year. They
| are sent out in lots of twenty to any one W hu
| cares TO ask for them; but, in order that
| persons not in earnest shall not take advan-