spread a hundred pounds of 8-8-4 (nitrogen, phosphorus, and 

 potassium) per acre of pond, and did this once a month. The 

 fertilizer stimulated the growth of the microscopic plants known 

 as algae, turning the water to a murky gray-green. The algae 

 increased the larvae, crayfish, and other natural fish food. A 

 pond thus treated, he found, was a land of milk and honey 

 for fish. 



Meanwhile, he discovered that bass alone in such a pond were 

 unsatisfactory. The larger bass would feed on the smaller ones, 

 and in a few years there'd be nothing in the pond but a few 

 large bass. 



He tried planting bream (bluegills), but bream alone multi- 

 plied so rapidly that soon the pond was loaded with stunted 

 fish. One pair of bream will produce as many as 15,000 young 

 in a year. 



Then he arrived at a combination of bass and bream at the 

 rate of 100 bass and 1,500 bream per acre of water, and the 

 results were highly pleasing. The bass fed on the excess bream 

 and grew fat and scrappy. At the same time the bream, their 

 numbers kept in check by the bass, fed on the abundant cray- 

 fish and larvae and made record growths. 



There was one catch in it. If weeds were permitted to grow, 

 the bream could hide from the bass. Result: overpopulation. 



The cure for weeds, however, was almost automatic. Swingle's 

 fertilization program made the water so murky with algae bloom 

 that the sunlight couldn't reach the bottom of the pond and 

 the weeds couldn't get started! This left only those weeds that 

 grow in shallow water, and these were abated by steepening the 

 banks, cutting and pulling. 



That was the kind of pond Lamar Blow was showing me a 

 sun-dappled expanse in a woods where bass and bream thrived. 



"But won't a pond like this get fished out?" I asked. "It 

 seems to me if you fish it hard, all year, that's bound to happen." 



"It can't be done," Blow assured me. "When you catch the 

 big ones, all you do is give the smaller ones a chance to grow. 

 These fish will reproduce as fast as you can take them. And how 

 they grow! Listen, you want to go fishing?" 



177 



