166 America u Fisheries Society 



arrangement that would not only produce bass, but giant 

 crappie. 



Another fish for which there is a considerable demand is 

 common bullhead catfish ; we will raise them. We have been 

 experimenting with them and find that they can be fed on 

 corn, wheat, meat, potatoes, bread and such material. They 

 grow in three or four years to over two pounds in weight. 

 We exhibited a bunch of them at the state fair at Topeka, 

 and most of the farmers who saw them said that those were 

 the fish they wanted. We will supply them with the best 

 species of catfish. They are especially desirable because of 

 the great variety of food they consume and also on account 

 of their hardiness and their ability to live in a small amount 

 of water during dry spells. We have fed them on corn 

 bread, graham bread, potatoes, bran, cornmeal cakes ; in 

 fact, they will eat almost anything. A thousand of them will 

 come up at the same time near the surface of a pond to 

 feed in a place where they have been accustomed to be fed. 

 It is a good idea to give them some meat and liver; but the 

 main part of the food that we gave them was vegetable 

 matter, because ordinarily it is cheaper and easier to handle 

 than animal food. 



Considering all the things that we hope to accomplish, 

 and considering the fact that Kansas has 80,000 square miles 

 of territory, and taking into account the number of fish that 

 one acre will produce, our hatchery of 100 acres of pond 

 water will not be a large hatchery for a state like Kansas. 



Here [indicating on map] you have a bird's-eye view of 

 the number and the arrangement of the ponds of the hatch- 

 ery. There are 83 ponds in this section in the proposed new 

 hatchery, and from 12 to 20 more to be built later on. There 

 are 1 1 ponds in the old hatchery, but four of these are small 

 cement ponds used for handling fish. The contract will be 

 let in a few days for the building of these 83 ponds.* The 



* This contract was let to James A. Green & Co., Inc., of Chicago, 

 November 21, 1911, the work to be completed by August 1, 1912. 



