Aincncaii I'islwrics Society. 135 



molested the eggs were l)ligiite(l. ( )ur forenum, Mr. Lydcll, 

 began last year feeding the fish on iniiniows, and gave them all 

 they would eat, and gave them all the\ wanted again this spring, 

 and as a result when they began to s]Ki\\n this year there wa.-^ ud 

 fighting; they paired off and spawned unmolested, and as a eon- 

 se(|uenee 44 out of 50 beds were productive, and we think that 

 is the secret — they nuist be fed on fish food. 



The President: How large are your stock jionds? 



The Secretary: Well, some are irregular in size, but those 

 of a regular size are about 80 feet long and 40 feet wide. 



The President How deep? 



The Secretary: Alxnit five feet in the center. We place the 

 spawning boxes in 18 inches of water. 



The President: How many bass in that space? 



The Secretary: Different numbers, from 30 to 50. 



The President: You mean aljout 20 females? 



The Secretary : Yes, we generally divide them up as nearly 

 equal as we can. 



Mr. Ravenel: Our methods are practically the same, we 

 never feed on liver, always on chopped fish or live fish. 



To refer again to the despised carp, the solution of raising 

 bass food is the carp. We feed our bass every spring from 

 500,000 to a million young carp. 



WV have never had anv trouble in the bass occupying the 

 same nests. The spawning area of the pond is divided off into 

 departments, and a dozen pair of bass are put in each depart- 

 ment. I want to ask Mr. liower how he arrived at that estimate 

 of a quarter of a million ])ass fry? 



The Secretary: We allow the male fish to guard the nest 

 until after the fish have hatched, and just a day or two before the 

 fry are readv to rise we set a screen around each l)ed — we call it a 

 fry retainer — it is a ban.d-iron frame covered with cheese cloth. 

 In a few days, depending on the temperature of the water, 

 tlie trv will rise; we then take them out and count a part of 

 the product of each bed, enough so we know our estimates are 

 verv close. We have taken as high as 10.000 from a singl.' bcxl. 



