192 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1. 



cat, which belongs to the bullhead family, and which I have 

 successfully raised in a short time to the weight of two and 

 two and a half pounds. 



No doubt many of you have cracked a smile when you have 

 read of corn for the catfish, but your bullhead enjoys a feed of 

 corn, wheat or other grain fully as well as your hogs and 

 cattle. He will thrive upon the diet, and will soon learn, when 

 feeding time arrives, to be at the proper place to receive his 

 rations. 



Next, do not overlook the sunfish. Like the bullheads, they 

 are very prolific, and though small are really a good farm fish 

 for the table. The catching of a mess will furnish your grand-, 

 children excellent sport ; the young of these fish furnish a very 

 large per cent of the food for other and larger fish. 



Another fish which has given me great satisfaction is the 

 Channel catfish. I take them from a stream when they are 

 two or three inches long, and place them in a pond. In a short 

 time they are large enough for the skillet. In little better than 

 two years I have caught them out of my ponds that weighed 

 five pounds. 



Now I desire to say a word about the kinds that the Hatchery 

 distributes. My choice of all for the small farm pond is the 

 bullhead and the Bluegill sunfish. The latter is not only very 

 prolific and a rapid grower, but is among the gamiest of the 

 small game fishes. Next, the crappie ; and last, the Black bass. 



A word in regard to this favorite of 'the Kansas sportsman, 

 by one who appreciates his gameness, his splendid table quali- 

 ties, and his general beauty. However, there is a reverse side 

 to the good showing of the picture when you come to study the 

 life history of this fish. I would not put bass in a small pond 

 and expect to get many fish of any other kind out of it. These 

 fish not only devour all the other fish in the pond that it is 

 possible for them to swallow, but turn cannibals and eat up 

 each other. If the people of Kafisas had appetites according to 

 their size as has the Black bass, a hundred-million-bushel wheat 

 crop would be consumed at home in six months. I am not 

 making this assertion from what I have heard people say, but 

 from my actual experience in raising this fish in my farm 

 ponds. I have paid for that experience, not alone along the 

 Black bass route, but in trying to raise fish which were not 

 adapted to our waters. 



Fourteen thousand Rainbow trout were placed in my ponds 

 two years ago. So far as I know, there is not one to be found 

 to-day. I have found out by experience that they are not 

 adapted to Kansas waters. A thousand Yellow perch were 

 planted in my ponds, and there may be a few left, but they are 

 not a fish for Kansas waters. Hence my experience and belief 

 is, that in stocking Kansas ponds you should use native Kansas 

 fish, and not spend time experimenting with fancy varieties 



