ONE YEAR'S WORK AT THE KANSAS STATE 

 FISH HATCHERY 



By Professor L. L. Dyche. 



State Fish and Game Warden, Pratt, Kansas. 



One year ago the pond system of the new Kansas State 

 Fishery Hatchery was being built. The earth embank- 

 ments were all completed in the rough by the middle of 

 October. The entire system of over 80 new ponds with 

 their cement water transmitters fitted with gates was 

 ready to be tested at this time. Exercises appropriate for 

 the occasion were held in the presence of about five thou- 

 sand visitors. 



WATER TURNED IN. 



The gates were opened on the 29th of October and the 

 water turned into the 21-inch supply pipe at 10 o'clock 

 A. M. Only about half a head of water was turned on, 

 but it reached the receiving pond that borders the west 

 end of the hatchery in less than thirty minutes. One-half 

 hour later a full head of water was running and it flowed 

 into the hatchery from a receiving chamber over an iron 

 weir plate, in a stream five feet wide and about six inches 

 deep, delivering over 125,000 gallons per hour or about 

 three and one-half million gallons per day. The ponds 

 to be filled were all new and had never had any water in 

 them, except a small amount from local rains. It was 

 estimated that it would take about sixty days to fill these 

 ponds as the banks were new and it was thought that the 

 seepage would be very great. The ponds were all filled, 

 that is, to standard height, which means six feet of water 

 in the deepest place, in a period of less than forty days. 



GOPHER BURROWS UNDER EMBANKMENT. 



It was soon discovered, however, that in places the 

 seepage was great and that there were many leaks due to 

 the fact that there were a great many gopher tunnels 

 that led from one pond to another and through the out- 

 side embankments. Gophers were very common in the 



