166 American Fisheries Society 



states that are just the right places to raise bass as a 

 commercial enterprise. 



For illustration, take Robinson Lake, owned by Mr. 

 Ernest C. Brown, in Columbia County, New York. It is 

 thirty feet deep and well stocked with bass. I personally 

 counted over five hundred nests of the small-mouth bass. 

 This year they started to spawn on April 22, and con- 

 tinued until the 18th of May, the temperature at this time 

 being 56 degrees Fahr. 



During a spell of six or eight cold nights, the tempera- 

 ture fell only three degrees. I went to Snider's Pond 

 about a mile away, and there found that the temperature 

 had dropped to 42. Here the eggs on most of the bass 

 nests were dead and had been deserted, making them a 

 total loss. Snider's Pond is shallow and subject to sud- 

 den changes in temperature while deeper lakes are not. 

 I am sure that between 250,000 and 300,000 young bass 

 could have been gathered in the first-named body of 

 water. At this time the hatchery at Lake Waramaug 

 was unable to fill the orders and the same condition was 

 true at Hiram People's. 



As Robinson's Lake is fairly well stocked with the 

 Daphniae or "mijinko,"* the shipping of bass, as ad- 

 vanced fry, could be done directly from the lake with 

 practically no expense. There is no hatchery account to 

 be kept up, no mature bass to feed, therefore practically 

 no outlay, nothing but gain. Field work may also be 

 done in the same body of water for Yellow Perch, Rock 

 Bass and Sunfish. All there is to it is the gathering of a 

 reasonably sure crop every year, and no time is wasted in 

 catching minnows to feed the larger bass. 



In some of the states. New York for instance, the bass 

 are not fed, but are taken in the spring shortly before 

 spawning commences, which, for the sake of economy, I 

 find practical. But the culture must be carried on in 

 artificial ponds and hence is subject to any sudden change 



*This is a Japanese term to include the minute Crustacea such as 

 Daphnia, Cyclops, etc., which form the natural food of many young 

 fishes. — Editor. 



