86 Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting 



undisturbed by the parent bass. The bass in this pond thrived 

 beyond my expectations and when the water was drawn ofif in 

 October I removed over 33,000 young bass of an ahiiost uniform 

 length of three inches, not to exceed 30 oversized fish being 

 found among the whole number. 



The uniformity in size I attributed entirely to the fact that 

 the fry were all hatched at practically the same time and I believe 

 that if bass spawners were held in water of a low temperature 

 until about the ist of June and then placed in spawning ponds 

 where the water is several degrees warmer, so as to ripen the 

 ova rapidly and thereby shorten the spawning period, that much 

 of the loss and annoyance caused by oversized fry would be 

 avoided. 



Although the experiment in feeding the carp fry to the young 

 bass in the pond proved a failure, yet I am convinced it would 

 be possible to keep carp spawners in water of a low temperature 

 to prevent them from spawning until late in the season, allowing 

 a few pair to spawn at intervals as needed ; this, I believe, would 

 prove a cheap and easy method of feeding bass fry in troughs 

 or small ponds where the number of carp fed could be completely 

 controlled by the attendants. 



Mr. Stranahan: With reference to this matter, I will say that 

 experiments have been made in France, also in this country by 

 the United States Fish Commission in Washington, to retard 

 the growth of carp. It has been found very successful. Mr. 

 Ravenel told me that the results were very gratifying by with- 

 drawing the food. 



Mr. Clark: From ^\r. O'Brien's i)aper I see that he is an 

 advocate of the partial rearing of fish, and that brings us back 

 to the old question that Mr. Whitaker, Mr. Mather and myself 

 fought over so many years ago; the question of yearlings. I 

 think, if I am not mistaken, they dubbed me the "Father of the 

 Yearling." I will say I don't wani to bring that question up 

 now, but I am still an advocate of it, but not for bass. If the 

 gentlemen that have been raising bass will take the pains to ex- 

 amine them minutely with the microscope they will find that a 

 young bass one week old is as mature a fish as at five years old. 

 For that reason I am an advocate of ])lanting the fry of the bass. 

 I think when it is thoroughly investigated it will be found better 

 to plant the young bass. I want to init myself on record as an 

 advocate of planting bass fry. If you plant them broadcast in 

 lakes and rivers they can spread out more. It is a more diflficult 

 thing to find artificial food for young- bass than for other fish. 



