Foods and Feeding of Fishes 157 



Two of our hatcheries in Indiana are fed by lakes. One of these lakes, 

 Maiden Lake, is about eight feet higher than our hatchery; it comprises 

 about 360 acres. This lake is full of food life of various kinds — full of 

 vegetation. In our hatchery, which consists of about fifteen ponds, 

 some of them over half an acre in extent, we have repeatedly tried to 

 raise small mouth bass. We have had excellent results with the large 

 mouth in these ponds, but with the small mouth we have had no success. 

 We can get the nests and the fry come up, but they do not live, though 

 there is plenty of food available. On the other hand, we have two 

 hatcheries that are fed by spring water, one at Indianapolis, and one at 

 Bass Lake, and there Mr. Lavery for the last two seasons has had very 

 good luck with the small mouth bass, which he was raising along with 

 some of the large mouth. Perhaps you gentlemen can tell us some- 

 thing about your experiences in that connection, but, stating the case 

 briefly, I would say that the water supply is the big factor in raising 

 small mouth bass. I doubt very much whether anyone will have much 

 success in cases where the lake water is used. Mr. Lydell, whom most of 

 you will recognize, I am sure, as one of the greatest bass culturists in 

 this country, will tell you the same thing. I remember well that in 1907 

 he told us, "When your State engages in the propagation of bass, espec- 

 ially small mouth bass, do not make the mistake of trying to rear them 

 in lake water." We found that this was borne out by experience. At 

 these particular ponds where we have attempted to raise the small 

 mouth bass there is an abundant supply of many of the ordinary 

 foods — Daphnia, Cyclops, Synura, things that little bass and other fishes 

 live on, yet the results have not been satisfactory, while with the large 

 mouth we have done quite well. I may add that we screen all our nests 

 and take the young fish out and put them in rearing ponds; and we 

 examine the food life to see that it is there so that we may replenish it 

 when it becomes scarce. 



We do some things with our bass, perhaps, that I do not know 

 very many others do. For instance, we spawn them more than once. 

 We find that by taking all the breeders out of a pond — in fact, taking 

 all the young fish out first, then removing the nest and seining out the 

 old breeders — putting them in other ponds freshly set and adding 

 some other females and some males, we can get the second spawning. 

 Then, when we get this second spawning we set another pond with 

 nests, take all the fish out again, and put them in a third pond. In that 

 way we get three spawnings, and you would be surprised at the enor- 

 mous number of fry that are produced in this manner. The question is, 

 of course, what to do with the fry. We have planted many fry that we 

 might have prefen-ed to rear to the fingerling stage. We have some 

 difficulty in raising fingerlings, but this last season we had some on 

 display at the State Fair that were nine inches long. They had been 

 raised on live food — that is something to which Mr. Buller referred ; 

 there is no doubt that that is the food that will make them grow fast. 

 We have had some that will grow longer than nine inches in four months 



