168 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
old. They are then fully developed young bass, well able to take 
care of themselves, and if you begin distributing at that age, 
you cannot get rid of all your bass before they are twenty or 
thirty days old, and in the meantime they are eating themselves 
up. In the Texas station Mr. Leary begins distributing early in 
the spring and he is distributing fish all summer, but he cannot 
be regulated by the size; for they grow so fast he cannot get rid 
of them soon enough. His messengers are taking fish out from 
the 18th of April on. 
(). What were the size of the bass on the 18th of April? 
Mr. Leary: Nearly two inches long—from an inch and a 
half to two inches. 
(). Could you not begin a little earlier then, advantage- 
ously ? 
A. Yes, I suppose I might. 
Q. You could get out more fish. 
A. If numbers count for anything I could get out a great 
many more, but I do not know whether we should have to sacri- 
fice results or not. 
Q. Don’t you think those small fish in a large body of water 
are less liable to eat each other up than they are in the small 
ponds where you have them ? 
A. There is something in that, but I prefer to plant a larger 
fish. 
President Clark: Why? 
Mr. Leary: That has been my experience, and experience 
teaches us pretty nearly when we are right. All of my plants 
have given perfect satisfaction, and all the ponds that we have 
stocked have choice supplies of fish, and I do not believe it would 
have been so if we had put in fry or very small fish that the 
sun perch and catfish would eatch or could destroy. It is an 
established fact that every pond contains sun perch and catfish, 
and without a doubt they would catch those little fellows. 
