THREE MAIN POINTS NECESSARY TO SUCCESSFUL 

 BASS CULTURE. 



BY J. J. STRANAHAN. 



From comparative failure during the two former years of 

 active operations at the Cold Spring, Ga., station of the United 

 States Fish Commission, what might probably be considered a 

 success was attained this year through the radical changes made 

 in three important particulars, and it will be my purposes to 

 confine this paper mainly to these points, which I consider car- 

 dinal, in fact, indispensal)le to successful pond cidture and more 

 especially to the production of young black bass. 



As will be seen by reference to former papers and remarks 

 presented by the writer to this association, he has been strongly 

 in favor of distributing what has now come to be known as "baby 

 fingerling" black bass. In his annual report two years ago and 

 in special reports to the Commissioner for the past two years he 

 has continually and persistently urged this course, giving as his 

 reasons that all fish so distributed are so much clear gain, as 

 there will be all or more fry left in the ponds after all of these 

 possible have been taken out and distributed that the pond will 

 furnish food for up to the fingerling stage. In these special and 

 annual reports he cited the complete success attending the 

 distribution of small-mouth fry by the Ohio State Commission 

 fifteen years ago, where streams in which this fish were not 

 indigenous became abundantly stocked through the planting of 

 comparatively small numbers of fry. 



Of course the conclusions arrived at at the meeting of this 

 association at Put-in-Bay last year, when the Commissioner and 

 his assistant in charge of the division of fish culture were both 

 present, practically settled this question, for, if I remember 

 aright, there was not a dissenting voice after the papers and dis- 

 cussion of the subject were finished, the admirable paper by Mr. 

 Lydell, of the Michigan Commission, making the question prac- 

 tically a closed matter. 



It is not, therefore, with a view of changing the opinion of 

 any one that I give the following results at this station this year 



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