46 American Fisheries Society. 



bushel of minnows on the sand, pick out what they needed and leave 

 the rest on the sand. We came to the conclusion that that was one of 

 the real causes of the disappearance of the minnows; accordingly a law 

 was enacted to prohibit it. 



Dr. Osburn: There is no doubt that much waste occurs, because 

 many of the minnows die and because the larger, breeding ones are 

 taken. 



Mr. Hayford: Speaking of the netting of reservoirs, I have no 

 doubt that in a great many instances good results are obtained, but I 

 would point out that to-day every fish culturist has to be familiar w?th 

 the raising of bass. When I went to New Jersey there was a good deal 

 of opposition to the spending of money on bass ponds; now each year 

 they are spending more money for artificial propagation. In some of 

 our lakes there is an abundance of fingerlings, but we have a lot of 

 ponds in which we find it very convenient to have ai-tificial propagation. 

 For instance, in the case of one of our lakes the shores were simply 

 lined with large-mouth bass fingerlings an inch to an inch and a quarter 

 long, while in another lake the hatch was very poor; so that we put 

 fingerlings into the lake where the hatch was poor in order to try to 

 keep both going. 



Dr. Osburn: That raises a practical point. If bass fingerlings 

 are taken out of a lake, even though there may be a large surplus of 

 them in that water, the anglers interested are likely to raise strenuous 

 objections, because they do not quite appreciate the fact that no damage 

 is done to the fishing in the lake by removing a considerable number of 

 the yoang. If hatcheries can supply the bass for new reservoirs and 

 for waters that are depleted, the angling population who do not see the 

 scientific side of it is better satisfied. If we could educate them to our 

 point of view, pei'haps we would not need so many hatcheries. In the 

 meantime it is better to have some hatcheries to satisfy the angling 

 population. 



Mr. Foster: May I ask Dr. Osburn whether he has ever noticed 

 egg-bound females in any fish other than those from Lake Erie? 



Dr. Osburn: Oh yes, we have had them in our inland lakes. We 

 have had them in Buckeye Lake, in the centi'al part of the state. A 

 couple of years ago the anglers were complaining about the law which 

 prevented the taking of fish in the closed season in that lake, because, 

 they argued, these fish would all get hooked by somebody and die anyway. 

 Mr. Wickliff examined a large number of dead bass down from that 

 lake, and upon only a very small percentage of them could he find any 

 marks whatever. V/hen he opened them he found they were adult 

 females egg-bound ; they had not been hooked. The fact was that un- 

 favorable weather conditions had caused the loss of a large number of 

 females, and the anglers, seeing these floating on the surface, thought 

 they had died as the result of being hooked. 



Mr. Foster: The reason for my inquiry is this: Two years ago 

 we received at Neosho station a number of adult small-mouth bass from 



