DISCUSSION ON MR. TITCOMB’S REPORT ON 
POND CULTURE. 
Mr. Clark: I have not anything in particular to say regard- 
ing Mr. Titcomb’s paper on “Pond Culture,” but I do think, 
now that we are working into the bass culture problem, that 
there ought to be more papers along similar lines; more espe- 
cially in reference to the vegetation and on the question of 
growing natural food. I hope something will be brought out 
more particularly next year, perhaps not as much on how long 
a bass will grow, etc.; but we do want to know how, when, and 
what to put in our ponds to grow the proper vegetation and 
make the proper quantity of necessary natural food. 
Dr. Evermann: I am rather inclined to believe that some 
of the difficulty is due to confusion of species. I have observed 
in aquariums, for instance, that Myriophyllum, Cerratophyllum, 
and a species of Bidens are often mistaken one for another. 
The horsetail Ceratophyllum is objectionable because it is a 
floating plant and is not so desirable as the Myriophyllum, or 
the Bidens becku. There are many species of the so-called 
water weed, and they differ a great deal in their values as 
forming a nidus for the growth of aquatic food, the different 
species of crustacea and various species of protozoa. 
I would like to know upon just what is based the statement 
that the different species of chara are particularly valuable. At 
first blush it would seem that chara might not be so valuable 
a plant as a food producer as some of these other plants. It is 
coriaceous, lime-coated and hard; and is not a plant that would 
furnish food on which the young fish might feed in so large a 
degree as other plants. 
Some little time ago some investigations were made by the 
Bureau of Fisheries at a certain lake in northern Indiana (Lake 
Maxinkuckee ), and certain relations were discovered or thought 
to be discovered between the presence of young bass, large 
mouth and small mouth, and certain species of aquatic plants. 
The lake was two and three-quarters or three miles long and 
190 
