144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



of black bass from Snipsic Lake, within a short distance from 

 where we now are. I have talked to people in this* vicinity in 

 relation to black bass that were taken from Snipsic Lake, 

 and I find that they like to catch them and like to eat them. 

 In New London County we have a number of ponds and lakes 

 stocked with them. I find that pickerel and perch are as 

 numerous in those ponds and lakes as they were before we 

 put the black bass in them. My boys will go to Hog Lake, 

 within one mile of me on one side, or to Rogers' Lake, cover- 

 ing a thousand acres, within a mile and a half on the other 

 side of me, and bring home a fine string of black bass. It 

 has been twelve years since we stocked those ponds there, and 

 I have never heard among the people residing in that vicinity 

 one word of objection ever raised to the black bass. We have 

 since stocked them with land-locked salmon, and within two 

 weeks I have taken one that weighed three pounds and a half. 

 I have seen large strings of pickerel, perch, and other fish 

 taken from those ponds and lakes. I say to you now, and I 

 say it upon my word and honor, I have never heard a word of 

 objection raised by an angler in that part of the State to black 

 bass. I do not believe that the Commission upon which I 

 have been for thirteen years have done a bad job in stocking 

 those lakes. We have been for years past stocking them with 

 other fish, and the black bass do well, the pickerel do well, 

 the perch do well ; and the land-locked salmon, and probably 

 carp will do well, give them time. 



Now, sir, I only got up to say these few words, instead of 

 cursing that fish, which is considered as good as the land- 

 locked salmon, pickerel, or perch. They protect their young, 

 and in that particular are different from any other fish. You 

 will see the parent fish hovering around them and protecting 

 them. A neighbor of mine caught a black bass in Hog Lake 

 that weighed five pounds and a half. I took him to Hartford 

 and presented him to the Fish Commission. He was viewed 

 from head to tail, from top to bottom, and they decided he 

 was a splendid specimen. I took him and presented him to 

 Governor Hubbard, and the Governor has said to me, over and 



