144 American Fisheries Society. 



from eight feet to two or three inches. We have never in all our ex- 

 perience been able to retain small mouth black bass in any of our ponds 

 that w^ould reproduce on artificial food ; that is, when the time came for 

 the spawning of the eggs, invariably the bass were in such condition 

 that the eggs were never normal. So that we depend every year on 

 a new supply of breeders. We have tried all sorts of artificial food 

 without any results that could be considered worth while. Well in this 

 pond to which I referred, we introduced one year 100,000 small mouth 

 black bass fry. 



Mr. Adams: Where did you get them? 



Mr. Buller: Took them off their nests. The water conditions 

 were very favorable; we had plenty of plant life in the pond, an ample 

 supply of Daphnia for the fry when they were in the small stage. We 

 attempted to feed them artificially, and in October, when we drew 

 that pond down, we had one black bass nine inches long; he was the only 

 one there. What happened I am at a loss to explain; I am just telling 

 you about some of our experiments. In that same pond next year we 

 put about the same number of small fry and fed them with minnows 

 which we gathered daily from some of the storage lakes to which we 

 have access- — we brought in from fifty to one hundred cans of small 

 minnows every day — and in October that year when we drew down that 

 pond we took out 49,000 bass from four to five inches long. 



Mr. Adams: The pond being of the same size? 



Mr. Buller: It was the same pond. We have come to the conclu- 

 sion, therefore, that what work we do in future with the small-mouth 

 black bass will be done with live minnows, and with that end in view we 

 have now a pond on which work is proceeding — it will be completed in 

 four or five weeks — that will cover an area of from 9.5 to 125 acres, and 

 there we propose to carry on the rearing of small mouth black bass with 

 minnows. We have never been successful in doing it in small ponds, 

 and it is my opinion that anyone who wishes to continue the rearing of 

 small mouth black bass will have to use live food. I am not speaking of 

 hatching out small mouth bass and distributing them in the fry stage, 

 because our people will not accept them under those conditions; we must 

 raise the fish up until they are suitable to put into the waters, 



Mr. Adams: The small m.outh bass in that lake are of what size? 



Mr. Buller: Four, five or six inches in October; some three and a 

 half. 



Mr. Titcomb: At what time will you begin to introduce minnows 

 in this pond? 



Mr. Buller: As soon as the bass are three or four inches long. 



Mr. Titcomb: What size minnow will you use? 



Mr. Buller: Very small; we get them by the hundreds of thou- 

 sands now. Anybody who goes in for the propagating of bass must 

 realize that it is going to cost them money. It costs us a great deal; 

 we have to produce these minnows, we have to raise them; we have to 

 have places to do that, and it is going to cost us money. But that is 



