1931 



ANNUAL REPORT, 1930 



45 



The IngersoU pond, however, has many favourable characteristics: It is 

 a suitable bass environment, the crustacean plankton is abundant, and the 

 introduction of golden shiners to provide food for the large fingerling and yearling 

 bass has proved a success. 



A quantity of suitable aquatic plants were introduced into the pond, and 

 the margin was fertilized with fourteen loads of horse manur'^. 



There is no reason why bass should not thrive in the pond, and in time it 

 should yield good results. 



Mount Pleasant Ponds.— At Mount Pleasant Hatchery six ponds were avail- 

 able for bass during the year. All the ponds were renovated during the fall of 



Section of a bass pond being refilled with water, Ontario 

 Government Hatchery, Mount Pleasant. 



1929 and again in the spring of 1930, that is, the ponds were drained and exposed 

 to the sun in order to sweeten the bottom by the oxidation of toxic substances. 



Two ponds were used exclusively for breeding, and four were used exclusively 

 for rearing. Two of the rearing or nursery ponds were fertilized with horse 

 manure and two with sheep manure in order to compare the relative value of 

 each fertilizer on the production of plankton and other aquatic life, and indirectly 

 on the production of bass. 



Golden shiners {Notemigomis crysoleucas) were introduced in advance of 

 the bass, approximately 100 adults to each rearing pond, in order to provide 

 suitable forage for the bass when they reached a length of two inches or more. 



In the breeding ponds Nos. 1 and 2, 131 parent small-mouthed black bass, 

 consisting of 63 males and 68 females, were used. Altogether 63 nests were set 

 to accommodate the 63 males. The number of fertile nests in pond No. 1 was 

 sixteen and in pond No. 2, eighteen. These 34 fertile nests produced in the 



