CHAPTER IX. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



DURING the past ten years great advances have been 

 made in the endeavour to stock private and public 

 ponds, lakes, and streams with the small-mouthed 

 bass, owing to the growing demand of sportsmen and of the 

 general public for resorts where one may spend a few days 

 in angling for this game fish. 



Of the methods adopted, artificial fertilization and 

 hatching, such as is practised with trout, seems to have been 

 unsuccessful, if not quite impracticable. Various attempts 

 have been made to hatch bass artificially, but the difficulty 

 of obtaining proper conditions, and especially satisfactory 

 temperatures, has been so great that the scheme has been 

 abandoned. 



At present, either the fully developed fish, male and 

 female, are actually transplanted from one place to an- 

 other in suitable tanks, and allowed to spawn naturally; 

 or else, ponds are constructed where the fish spawn under 

 semi-natural conditions; and the small fry are then caught, 

 when from one inch to three inches in length, and shipped 

 to their destination. The former plan, that of transferring 

 adult fish, seems open to the objection that they may die 

 if placed in waters quite different from those in which they 

 have been reared, owing to the difficulty of sudden accli- 

 matization. The second plan, that of raising small fry 

 from adult fish placed as nearly as possible in natural con- 

 ditions, and then transplanting these, seems more reasonable 

 and has proved more feasible and satisfactory. 



The most scientific account of transplanting bass is 

 given in the Report of the Michigan Fish Commission by 

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