2038 The Cornell Reading Courses 



large-mouthed bass has the advantage in two particulars: namely, it 

 grows a little more rapidly, and it will find its own nesting site in the 

 vegetation. 



The number of stock fish to use will depend on the size of the fish. 

 The principal thing to be kept in mind is that overstocking leads to over- 

 crowding, which generally results in the pond's containing a large number 

 of undersized, poorly fed fishes or a very few overgrown ones, which have 

 lived at the expense of the weaker ones. If sexually mature adults are 

 used, only a few are necessary to stock a pond of one acre. Probably 

 twenty-five or thirty pairs of black bass and double this number of any 

 other species will be sufficient. In the case of fingerlings and advanced 

 fry probably two or three thousand would not be too many of the former 

 and from four to six thousand of the latter. 



The procedure in stocking a fishpond is summed up as follows : 



1. Aquatic plants are the first organisms to be planted in the pond. 

 They should be started as early in the spring as possible. 



2. The various smaller food animals, such as the Crustacea and the 

 Mollusca, should follow the introduction of the plants immediately. 



3. The first year during the fore part of June, the forage fishes, gold- 

 fish and golden shiners, should be added to the number of one hundred 

 pairs of each. 



4. Advanced fry of the edible fishes may be planted when available 

 during the first summer, fingerlings in September and October, but year- 

 lings or larger .should not be planted until the second stunmer. 



5. The suggested numbers of the edible fishes per acre of water are 

 about twenty-five pairs of adult black bass or fifty pairs of any other 

 kind, from two to three thousand fingerlings, or from four to six thousand 

 advanced fry. 



POND management 



The kind of pond described in this lesson is designed to take care of 

 itself; there are certain agencies, however, that tend to decrease its pro- 

 ductiveness and must be considered. Also, the fish crop must be harvested 

 and otherwise cared for. The management of the pond, therefore, will 

 be concerned principally with these two considerations. 



Protection against obnoxious animals 

 There are many wild creatures that often constitute a menace to the 

 success of the pond. Among birds, kingfishers, night herons, little green 

 herons, and domesticated ducks and geese, are known to devour large 

 numbers of young fishes. Ducks and geese are perhaps the worst offenders 

 in that they also destroy the pond vegetation and hosts of small food 

 animals living on these plants, If one desires to raise ducks and fish 



