234 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
weeds, with close-cut turf extending to the water’s edge, may add to the sightliness of the 
pond, but it will operate against the odonate fauna. The larger vegetation is not neces- 
sary; an area covered with tall weeds and grass somewhere around the margin of the 
pond will prove amply sufficient. 
If the breeding of fish and the rearing of forage for their consumption is confined 
to a single pond, of course that will be the place to stock with odonate eggs or nymphs. 
With proper care such combined breeding may be carried on successfully in the same 
pond, as is done at Fairport. ‘If not overstocked, the average pond may be managed 
so that it will furnish all the live food necessary for the adult fish.”” (Johnson and Staple- 
ton, 1915, p. 19.) 
In the last few years the forage problem in connection with fish culture has been 
receiving much more attention here in the United States. Embody (1915, p. 233) noted 
that “‘The propagation of minute organisms in great numbers as food for young fishes 
has been accomplished by the Chinese and the Japanese and more recently by the 
Germans,’’ and he recommeded small forage ponds in connection with the larger fish 
pond (p. 235): 
There is good reason for believing that the supply of aquatic insects can be materially increased 
by building a few small breeding ponds along the margin of the main pond and excluding all fishes there- 
from. Certain insects will naturally deposit their eggs in both breeding and main ponds. There are no 
very destructive insects in the former; hence there are sure to emerge a goodly number of adults, which, 
in turn, will continue year after year to repopulate the small ponds, as well as the main pond. 
Needham and Lloyd have advocated the same idea in The Life of Inland Waters 
(1916). In figure 242, on page 408, they present a diagram illustrating conditions 
advisable for intensive fish raising on an 80-acre tract of wet upland traversed by a trout 
stream. The noticeable thing about it is the large area, 40 acres of ponds, to be placed 
under control for the production of fish forage. 
Until experiments have been tried out in a practical way for some length of time, 
it will be impossible to decide definitely how much breeding area is necessary or advisable 
in order to produce the amount of food forage requisite for a given number of fish. 
Meanwhile, if forage breeding is to be attempted, the place to put the odonate eggs and 
nymphs will be with the other fish food in the breeding ponds, as well as in the main 
fishpond. Once well started in both places they will thereafter propagate themselves, as 
Embody has stated. 
SECURING THE Stock MATERIAL.—The method of securing the necessary odonate 
eggs or nymphs for stocking the pond will vary with the time of year. If the fishpond 
is to be started in the spring or fall, the best odonate material to put in it will be the 
nymphs. ‘These may be collected from the nearest pond or from the still water of a stream 
or river Some nymphs inhabit running water or places where there is a perceptible 
current, but such species are not suited for pond life. 
An old ditch well choked with alge and water plants, and in which the water stands 
throughout the year, is an admirable source whence to obtain the nymphs. There are two 
good methods of collecting them, and it would be well to use both. If there is much 
loose algae and débris over the bottom of the ditch, the best implement to use is the com- 
mon garden rake, as advised by Needham (1899). The collector can stand on the shore 
and rake the alge and weeds out of the water onto the ground in front of him. As the 
water drains off the nymphs will make active efforts to get back, and are thus easily 
found and secured. 
