Dyche. — Neiv Kansas Fish Hatchery 11 



ively that it is necessary for them to keep entirely away from the 

 old ones. Also by feeding the old ones well their appetites are re- 

 duced. We use a great deal of prepared food — meal and meat scraps 

 ground together with some preservative which keeps it indefinitely. By 

 these two methods we have for two years succeeded in raising a very 

 satisfactory number of fish. 



In our state fishing has become apparently the prevailing pastime. 

 We estimate that we have now in Ohio nearly a million people who 

 are interested in hook and line fishing. We have succeeded in organ- 

 king such persons into clubs for the protection of fish in the streams, 

 until now these clubs are common over the state. But we are put 

 to our wits' ends to supply the demands. Last spring I got eighteen 

 carloads from the marsh districts of Lake Erie. We put out a num- 

 ber of carloads of bass weighing from two to four pounds. We got 

 them very early, so we had the benefit of the spawn in the spring. 

 I have found this so successful that in the future I expect to devote 

 a good deal of effort to restocking by this method. We are fortunate 

 in being able to get from the marsh district an almost unlimited num- 

 ber of small-mouth bass, rock bass and blue-gills. We put out eight 

 carloads of blue-gills in March when the streams would receive the 

 benefit of all the spawn. We are making provisions for enlarging our 

 reservoirs and contemplate adding a number of small systems in vari- 

 ous parts of the state. It may be better to follow Professor Dyche's 

 plan of concentrating all effort at one point, but from experience in 

 the past three years with little wild ponds I am convinced that under 

 ordinary conditions such numbers of fry can be raised that it seems 

 unnecessary to go into a big scheme of pond propagation. 



In one little pond, with an area of less than half an acre, we put 

 last fall, thirty pairs of breeders. I have seen it several times and 

 looked it over recently. We are just beginning to take out the young 

 and it looks as if there were from 50,000 to 100,000 of them. They 

 have had no careful attention of any kind. 



We find, as Professor Dyche does, that the young are cannibals from 

 infancy, but it has been our experience, after five years close observa- 

 tion, that when we feed properly this is greatly reduced. 



In Lake Erie waters it is interesting to note the difference in habitat 

 of the two species of bass. In Sandusky Bay one can get a carload 

 of small-mouth bass at one haul of the seine. As soon as the water 

 turns cold they all make for the deepest waters. I have been over 

 the bay during the winter season and have seen tons and tons of pickerel 

 and perch caught through the ice, but never a small-mouth bass, where 

 three months later they could be found at every point. In the marsh 

 district we take carload after carload of large-mouth and never see a 

 small-mouth bass. They do not frequent the same waters, yet we are 

 putting them into every stream in the state. It was a common notion 

 a few years ago that small-mouth bass would not live in our ordinary 

 Ohio streams, but we have disproved this by using them to stock the 

 streams, and this year our fishermen had remarkable success with them. 



Mr. Titcomb, of Vermont: I wish to ask Mr. Speaks what he uses 

 for food and where he gets it, and to ask also for Mr. Lydell's expe- 

 rience with prepared foods. 



Ma. Speaks: It is meat ground with meal and some sort of pre- 

 servative added so that it will keep. It may be had from any of the 

 Chicago packing houses under the name of "prepared fish food." Our 

 fish appear to relish this food and do well with it. 



Mr. Lydell, of Michigan: We use beef liver, beef milt and beef 

 scrap. Last year I fed a lot of young perch on this diet and they 

 were four or five inches long by the latter part of August. They 



