136 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



same area of water than we now do, simply by having in a 

 pond, fed with cold spring water, where possible, a surplus 

 or extra supply of male and female bass to draw upon, these 

 extra bass to be introduced into the regular breeding ponds 

 immediately after the first fry have been removed. 



FOOD SUPPLY 



The food supply for the fry of the small-mouth bass at 

 the Mill Creek Station is principally Daphnia, belonging to 

 the family of water fleas. The supply is limited in the 

 ponds that are left in their natural condition during the 

 whole year, but almost unlimited in ponds that are drawn 

 down and left nearly dry from the middle of September 

 until the ground is frozen. In ponds so treated the past 

 two seasons we reared to the No. 1 fingerling stage six 

 times as many bass as we did in another pond of the same 

 area and not thus exposed. Great clouds of this food could 

 be seen apparently rolling along, having the appearance of 

 roily water. By taking a boat and going out on the pond 

 and looking down into the water the bottom seemed to be 

 carpeted to the depth of an inch with Daphnia. Later in 

 the day, if it was warm, this food would rise and distribute 

 itself through the water. In one pond 150 x 364 feet, 

 treated as above, we reared 30,900 No. 1 fingerlings ; 25,200 

 No. 2 fingerlings, and 3,000 No. 3 fingerlings of the small- 

 mouth bass, and in another pond of about the same area 

 100,000 large-mouth were raised to the No. 1 fingerling 

 stage. 



> CONSTRUCTION OF PONDS 



A great deal of thought has been given to the construc- 

 tion of a pond that would better serve the purpose of both 

 breeding and rearing bass. Of course, we know that adult 

 bass prey upon the young to a certain extent, especially when 

 the adults do not receive a certain amount of food every 

 day. The plan finally decided upop was to construct a 

 pond with two terraces, the first one extending from the 



