Part I. 



PONDS, POND FISH, AND POND FISH 

 CULTURE. 



THE number of letters of inquiry that have been received 

 by the Department of Fish and Game since the writer 

 has been connected with it (December 1, 1909) concern- 

 ing fish ponds, how to build them, what kind of fish to 

 put in them, how to secure fish for stocking purposes, and 

 numerous other questions, would indicate a very general and 

 widespread interest in these subjects. These letters of in- 

 quiry have been received from nearly every county in Kansas 

 and from several states as far east as Maine and Virginia 

 and as far west as Washington and California. The number 

 and variety of the questions in these letters were so great that 

 it made it impracticable if not impossible for the department 

 to undertake to answer them individually except by short notes 

 referring to matter that was being prepared on these subjects 

 with the hope that it could be published in the near future for 

 free distribution. 



One of the publications referred to as directly bearing upon 

 these subjects was a bulletin on the subject of ponds, pond fish 

 and pond fish culture that was being especially prepared to be 

 issued at an early date. To a very considerable extent this 

 bulletin has been so framed as to answer the various questions 

 that have been propounded. 



In putting the matter into a bulletin that will answer the nu- 

 merous questions asked, an effort has been made to give simple 

 and elementary information on the subjects treated and to 

 make the information as nearly accurate as possible. No little 

 pains and difficulty have been experienced in getting together 

 the material which the author thought might be of interest and 

 value to the readers of this bulletin. 



The writer has been very much interested in the subjects of 

 fish, fishing and good places to fish since he was a small boy. 

 He made one of his first permanent collections of fishes during 

 the spring of 1878, at Lawrence, Kan., and later, in the spring 

 and summer of the same year, he made collections of the small 

 fishes found in the Hackberry and Big creeks and other small 

 streams near the headwaters of the Smoky Hill river in Gove, 

 Logan and Wallace counties. Since that time he has studied 

 fish more or less in connection with his work on mammals and 

 birds, both in the field and at the University of Kansas in the 

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