American Fisheries Society. 193 
ing chara. I was out for the Fish Commission a couple of years 
and we got a great abundance of this plant, chara. And if 
that plant does not produce food I don’t know what does. In 
one of our ponds this year where there was nothing but chara, 
you could see great clouds of food over this plant. You could 
take a pan and dip it up and could not see the bottom of the 
pan. What this food was I don’t know. It is a new food that 
came there last year. I sent some to Ann Arbor to be identified, 
but never received a report. 
Dr. Evermann: Have you made any comparison as to the 
value of different plants? 
Mr. Lydell: Yes, sir. I found that Potomogeton drove 
chara out, and I could not raise 100 fish where before the chara 
went I could raise 1,000. I would like to find out what this 
new food is. It comes when the young fish are coming off the 
bed. When you look down on it you see a little three cornered 
black speck. Along the shores of the pond were thousands of 
little black shells about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, from 
which apparently these animals were hatched. 
Mr. Seymour Bower: Two years ago this summer our 
board of Fish Commissioners engaged the services of Professor 
Reighard, the well-known zoologist. He was employed at the 
Mill Creek Station for three months to solve some problems in 
connection with bass culture. I have copies of his report with 
me and will be glad to give one to any who may desire it. My 
recollection is, his conclusion was that the chara was the best 
food producer of anything in the ponds. 
Mr. Lydell: Professor Reighard said he never saw a pond 
so teeming with bug-life as ours with the chara in it. 
, Mr. Clark: Is it not probable that the vegetation which 
produces the animal food for our ponds at Northville, if trans- 
ferred to other waters, say in Washington, Georgia, etc., might 
not do? 
Dr. Evermann: I think so, decidedly. 
Mr. Clark: The water and other conditions may produce 
this food at Northville, whereas the chara might be barren at 
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