]8() Thirty-Secund Annual Meeting 



soon as possible — 1 do not tliink it was dry a day, but the vegeta- 

 tion all died except a little around the inlet. 



Mr. Titeomb: Don't you think the vegetation was killed in 

 that ease by hauling the pond down? 



Mr. Dean : I don't know. 



Mr. Riley : Did you ever try to pull it down in October ? 



Mr. Dean : No, in the spring, in March after the vegetation 

 comes out; then the conferva comes in very thick and yet this 

 pond which we call No. 14 discharged all its water in the pond 

 below which is No. 7, and No. 7 has almost no conferva in it, yet 

 the discharge from No. 14 which was full of conferva goes into 

 No. 7 and does not produce any there to amount to anything. 



Mr. Titeomb : Do you think March is the proper time to^ 

 draw it down ? 



Mr. Dean : I would rather do it in February, but I could not 

 do it then this year — I think it ought to be done a little while 

 before the fish spawn. 



General Bryant: What do you draw it down for, to secure a 

 complete change of water ? 



Mr. Dean : No, sir, to arrange your spawners for the season\< 

 work, and to get out any undesirable fish that there may l)e in 

 the pond. 



Mr. Titcoml) : It seems to me that Mr. Dean has answered 

 his own question, lie has drawn his pond down at an improper 

 time. 



Mr. Leary : Draw it down in Octoljer. As soon as your l)ass 

 is distriljuted take your old fish, put them in a nursery pond and 

 draw your brooding ponds down. 



Mr. Dean : If we put our breeders in the pond the first of 

 January by the first of July the pond would be so full of craw- 

 fish there could not anything grow. 



Mr. Lydell : I do not see any otlier way for superintendents 

 to work tliat out exce])t to do so independently. Conditions 

 differ at all different bass stations. We have no trouble at our 

 stations as far as vegetation is concerned. We cannot draw the 

 wat^r all out of our ponds and there is always a foot or so in 

 them. 



Mr. Eavenel : How old are your ponds ? 



Mr. Lydell : Five years. The only way, as I say, is for the 



