152 American Fisheries Society. 



anything the matter with them, and he said. '*0h no, nothing particu- 

 lar; it was dark but you could see little things on them, I suppose it was 

 clay stuff or something like that." But we had none of that in the ponds 

 this year that we hatched in. It has occurred in other ponds which were 

 newer, though: we have a clay formation on the bottom of the pond and 

 it takes from two to three years to get a suitable amount of black muck 

 and scum through the decomposition of plant life which will in turn 

 enable the ponds to grow plant life profusely. 



In conclusion, as I have said, I think that every fish culturist has to 

 work out his own salvation, but he cannot do it without the assistance of 

 the scientific man, who can carry out experiments, examine stomachs, 

 apply his biological knowledge and training — something which, un- 

 fortunately, a great many fish culturists do not have. May I say also 

 that for whatever success we have attained the credit is due not so much 

 to me as it is to Dr. Embody. 



Mr. Beard: I am not a fish culturist, but I am a chemist. Mr. 

 Buller stated that he could raise small mouth black bass; one year they 

 fed them artificially and had no success; the next year they fed them 

 minnows and raised a large number. Now, these fish that grew on 

 minnows must have been furnished with certain food factors such as are 

 given to sick people, and so on, in order to get results. They must have 

 been furnished with such things as protein, different food constituents, 

 vitamines, and so on. Might it not be a good thing to study what the 

 requirements of the fish are from a biological standpoint; to find out 

 what they should have in the way of food constituents? It seems to me 

 that if that were done you would have some basis to work upon in 

 connection with the things you do. That is, instead of feeding this, 

 that and the other thing, irrespective of whether or not you are giving 

 them the proper food elements, it seems to me that here is a field that 

 might profitably be gone into through study and investigation. Wonder- 

 ful things have been done in that same line in connection with the food 

 of human beings. 



Mr. Hayford: Quite so; that is why we carry on a great deal of 

 our work along these lines. 



Mr. Beard : My idea would be to get the right type of man to corre- 

 late all these different facts so that proper scientific conclusions could 

 be amved at with a view to getting definite results. There would 

 cei'tainly seem to be opportunities along that line. Furthermore, if we 

 got down to the bioligical and chemical fundamentals, the food con- 

 stituents necessary in certain cases and at different stages, we might be 

 able to devise foods that would be not only better but cheaper, and a 

 large amount of money would thus be saved. We may be now paying 

 ten cents a pound for fish food which is not perfectly suitable, whereas 

 inquiry might result in the production of a food that could be turned out 

 at say $15 a ton. The thing is to know exactly what kind of food you 

 want to make. 



