THE BASS AT THE MILL CREEK STATION. 
-BY DWIGHT LYDELL. 
In a letter from our Honorable Secretary, a couple of weeks 
ago I was asked to contribute something in the way of a paper, 
no difference how brief, and as to briefness I think I have you all 
faded. 
The bass at the Mill Creek Station are now in the pink of 
condition, but this could not be said of them last spring. One 
year ago last month we lost the most of the S. M. stock fish at 
the Mill Creek Station by flood. What few were left (about 20 
in number, were transferred from our regular breeding ponds 
to a much larger pond, for the reason that the breeding ponds 
had to be kept dry for some time in order that a cement wall 
might be built to protect us from farther damage by flood. 
After transferring what few breeders there were left, other 
stock was procured from outside waters and placed in the same 
pond, but we were never able, until this spring after the spawn- 
ing season, to control these fish, or in other words, get them to 
come to any certain point to feed, in fact they had no food ex- 
cept what was in the pond, this consisted possibly of a few craw- 
fish. The outcome was that they were in rather poor condition 
when the spawning season arrived this spring. 
From the first spawning about 60 of the 78 beds in the pond, 
were covered with eggs, these I have no doubt would have come 
through in good shape only for cold weather that drove the tem- 
perature of water from 62° down to 47°, where it stayed for two 
days. The outcome was that the bass deserted their nests, and 
the whole business went up in smoke. Probably from this 
spawning there were 300 fry hatched. Why these 300 escaped I 
do not know, and was too disgusted at the time to try and find 
out. 
After the water had warmed up again another spawning was 
found to have taken place, about 40 beds being covered with eggs. 
These seemed fairly good, but the adult or parent bass were so 
blooming hungry by this time, that they turned in and ate up 
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