124 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



Adult bass were caught in Oneida Lake from May 21 to 

 May 26, 1908, were placed in the ponds at Constantia and 

 commenced to nest at once. From fish taken in Oneida 

 Lake in 1909, 100 adult small-mouth bass were carried to 

 Linlithgo Station, a distance of about 160 miles, and in- 

 volving a fatiguing journey; and yet Mr. Winchester re- 

 ported that they adapted themselves to the changed condi- 

 tions satisfactorily and began to make their nests after a 

 few days. The results of their spawning were good. 

 After the spawning season 100 more were brought to Lin- 

 lithgo from Oneida Lake. At the Chautauqua Hatchery the 

 first experiment in hatching small-mouth bass in a pond was 

 made at Bemus Point. Adult bass caught in Chautauqua 

 Lake were placed in Becker's Pond, near Bemus Point. 

 The fry resulting from their nesting were estimated at 

 50,000. They were carried to fingerling size without ar- 

 tificial food, and with very small loss. This experiment 

 shows the practicability of getting a good average hatch 

 from a small number of bass after transferring them sud- 

 denly from open waters to a rather small pond. On July 

 25th some of the young measured two inches in length. 

 The dark bars on the sides of young bass are developed 

 much earlier at Bemus Point than at Constantia. At 

 Bemus Point bass about one inch long have nine or ten 

 conspicuous dark bars on the sides; but at Constantia 

 the bars do not appear until the fish are considerably 

 older. 



On July 2, 1909, Mr. George F. Scriba, foreman of the 

 Oneida Station, took two nests of black bass containing 

 15,000 fry from one of the hatchery ponds. In the same 

 year Mr. G. Dexter, of Utica, wrote to the New York 

 Commission that two bass caught at Lewis Point, in the 

 western part of the state, were full of eggs. I mention 

 this circumstance to show that the law does not protect the 

 black bass through the whole of its spawning season, al- 

 though the intention was to protect it during the entire 

 period. 



