8 



THE REPORT UPON 



No. 9 



measured from 2}^ to 3\f inches. (Fig. 1.) A specimen which had attained its 

 second year measured 6tV inches. (Fig. 3.) Photographs of scales show the rate 

 of growth of these specimens. (Figs. 2 and 4.) Preliminary experimental work 

 was carried out in regard to the artificial hatching of maskinonge. A portable 

 hatchery was located on the Pigeon River, near Omemee, and the results were 

 most promising and instructive. The hatch amounted to 70,000 fry. This hatch 

 was obtained from three females and nine males. 



Bass propagation during the past year was disappointing. Thorough 

 enquiry has been made in regard to bass culture in virtually every state that has 

 a bass hatchery in the United States, and a review of the statistics accumulated 

 convinces us that the pond culture of bass cannot of itself improve the bass 

 situation in our provincial waters. The pond culture of bass is most uncertain. 



Fig. 4. — Scale showing two winter 1 ands taken 

 from whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis- 

 Mitchill), reared at Glenora Hatchery. 

 Age, two years. 



The chief drawback is that black bass do not permit of artificial culture like the 

 trouts, and, after constructing ponds, building nests for the bass, etc., the 

 output, annually, is not large enough to meet a small fraction of the demand 

 for small-mouth black bass. The output is interfered with on account of canna- 

 balism among the bass, changing temperatures — which sometimes are so variable 

 during spawning season as to cause a total loss — and the lack of proper food 

 staples. A graph showing a representative series of temperatures, taken at 

 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. from bass pond No. 7, Mount Pleasant Hatchery, is included 

 in the report. The graph (Fig. 6) illustrates the fluctuating temperatures which 

 during the spawning season are such as to prove disastrous in bass culture. 

 Before this report went to press, experimental work with bass was resumed at 

 Mount Pleasant for 1928, and it was found that closing off the water supply- 

 ing the individual ponds at 6 p.m. and turning it on at 9 a.m. the following 

 morning if the sun was shining and if the weather continued mild and warm 

 reduced temperature fluctuations very considerably. 



