224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



lected from various eourcea, and in every instance found to be woefully deficient 

 Stink there was, always in abundance, but the ammonia, potash, phosphoric acid 

 were not. Sand, salt, spent plaster and common earth made up their bulk. ThesS 

 facts make it plain that our State fertilizer law should embody a clause requiring 

 the State Chemist to possess himself of samples of shipments, at times unknowato 

 dealers, and if found deficient to visit a heavy penalty upon the offender. 



THE FISH mTERESTS OF INDIANA.* 



BY ENOS B. REED, EDITOR OF THE PEOPLE. 



Ladie.n and Gentlemen: There may be those before me who take no interest in 

 fish or fishing, although I can scarcely conceive this to be the case.' It may be that 

 some of you have never ' 



"Baited your hook with a dragon's tail. 

 And sat on a rock and bobbed for whale." 



If so you are greatly to be pitied. -0, the luxury of waiting for a bite, aod O, 

 the luxury of drawing in a whale — of a bass. I have the reputation of having 

 done this to a considerable extent. I am not deserving of it. The largest bass I 

 ever caught — "killed" some will hare it — was, if I remember correctly, three 

 pounds and a quarter. That was taken with a hard-shell crawfish about two 

 inches in length, and a few minutes thereafter I captured its mate with a similar 

 crawfish. They were as like as two peas — of course I mean the bass, not the craw- 

 fish. 



But if not successful in the literal matter of takiug large bass, I have found that 

 compensation which lies back of all misfortune, in the knowledge I have acquired 

 concerning the habits and dispositions of fish. For instance, I have learned that 

 bass are particularly voracious in rainy weather. An old ballad says: 



" The herring loves the merry moonlight, 

 The mackerel loves the wind," 



But the eccentric bass has a decided preference for the splashing rain-drops, and 

 delights to sport with them on the surface. Therefore it is I was often seen, cowled 

 and enveloped in rubber cloth, silent and solitary, sitting in front of the old mill 

 at Broad Ripple, when all other sentient things were seeking shelter from the 

 steadiest of summer rains; and upon these occasions I hp.ve strung my heavier 

 lines. I have heard of bass being taken out of White river that weighed eight and 

 ten pounds. I never saw one of this description; a six-pound bass is about the 

 largest I ever saw " with my own eyes " caught in these parts, although I have been 



*Read before the Annual Agricultural Convention, January 8, 1885. 



