156 American Fisheries Society. 



Mr. Doze: Do you raise any carp? 



Mr. Hayford: No — I have to be careful how I say "carp". But I 

 believe it would be a good thing to do. 



Mr. Canfield: Have you ever tried the orange spotted sunfish? 



Mr. Hayford: No, not to any considerable extent. We have them 

 in this plant, but only in small number. It does not seem to make any 

 difference with these young bass how long a minnow has been dead : we 

 can take four or five cans, go up to the pond, and dump them in; and if 

 you go round the pond in an hour you wont even see a dead one. 



Mr. Canfield: Do you find it cheaper to collect your minnows than 

 to raise them? 



Mr. Hayford: These ponds are on our own property. 



Mr. Canfield: In other words, the labor in collecting them is less 

 than it would be in raising them? 



Mr. Hayford: Yes. The big cost is building — that is where the 

 pinch comes. 



Mr. Doze: Have you the leaf hopper out there — a little green bug? 



Mr. Hayford: I am not familiar with it. 



Mr. Doze: How are the grasshoppers? 



Mr. Hayford: We have the grasshoppers. 



Mr. Doze: Have you ever fed grasshoppers? 



Mr. Hayford: No, we have not come to that point. They are pretty 

 large for the small bass. Of course, we could not get them in quanti- 

 ties. When you get a big plant you have to get something of which you 

 can obtain large quantities. 



Mr. Canfield: What is the average percentage of female small 

 mouth bass that spawn each year? 



Mr. Hayford: The first year I thought I was doing pretty well: 

 I put 29 pair on the nest; and I hatched 24 pair out of 29; but the next 

 year I put 49 pair on and hatched 7. 



Mr. Canfield: What is your average from year to year, over a term 

 of years? 



Mr. Hayford: I would say about 50 per cent. I had a pond of 14 

 nests this year, and I had 7 very fine nests come up. In another pond 

 I had 20 nests, and I had 11 come up; and I had three or four nests that 

 I did not see at all. But speaking of feeding, to me the thing is to get 

 the facts boiled down to whez'e we can produce a proper food ; and then 

 you have got to face the fact that the conditions are not the same in 

 any two places. 



Mr. Canfield: Is it pretty much a local proposition? 



Mr. Hayford: Yes. 



Mr. Mannfeld: I take it for granted that everybody here is more 

 or less interested in the propagation of the small mouth bass. We 

 have been carrying on some very interesting experiments in Indiana 

 relative to the rearing of the small mouth bass. Much has been said 

 about the feeding of the fish, but we have found by experience in our 

 State that the water supply is absolutely one of the important things. 



