2 



own young. A few inBtances to illustrate their nature and habits : A few 

 years ago we made some very large collections of bass fry at Quincy 

 for distribution, and having no convenient place for holding them 

 until they could be distributed, we obtained permission from the city 

 authorities to put them in the basin of a park fountain for a few 

 weeks. When deposited there were 6,500 bass fry ranging in size 

 from 1^ to 2 inches up to the "fingerlings" from 4 to 5 inches. We 

 had our men procure the small shiner minnows from the sand bars 

 in the river for their food, and in the six weeks we held them several 

 hundred thousand of these minnows were devoured; besides these 

 we fed the fry twice a week with ground liver and fish. At the ex- 

 piration of six weeks we drew down the basin to take the fish out for 

 distribution and found but 2,600 left, all sleek and fat, not a dead fish 

 in the basin, but the small fish had all been eaten by the larger ones. 

 At another time, at Meredosia, we selected a spring pond, covering 

 about an acre, for a storage pond, in which late in the preceding fall 

 we had placed a few large breeders that we had held over. In the 

 spring, after the spawning time, the pond was literally filled with 

 bass fry, estimated at 50,000. As we expected to move the fry early 

 we did not take out the adult fish, and as our collections were run- 

 ning heavy we added to the pond 40,000 more bass fry. There was 

 a delay of several weeks in getting ready for distribution and when 

 we seined the pond, instead of our 90,000 bass fry we took out less 

 than 8,000. What made this decrease more extraordinary was the 

 fact that the pond was well filled with moss and grass, and its inlet 

 from a creek flowing over vegetation of all kinds, which must have 

 furnished a large amount of food. This experience of our own, with 

 the numerous failures of others throughout the State to successfully 

 raise bass, to which our attention has been called, has convinced us 

 that bass culture in small ponds is not practicable. 



There are so many other fish that make good pond fish that we 

 urge applicants to give the matter thought before insisting on having 

 black bass. Large ponds, where vegetation has had a chance to grow 

 for several years and well filled with small, soft-rayed fishes, may do 

 well for bass culture, but sufficient area to produce plenty of such 

 food is a necessity. Some of the best pond fishes we have are the 

 rock bass, the bream and sun fishes, and crappie in limited quanti- 

 ties fill in well. Our public waters have been well supplied, and 

 most gratifying reports reach us as to the increase. 



The lack of proper enforcement of the laws for the protection of 

 fish is felt, and elsewhere in this report we shall recommend such 

 changes in this respect as will overcome this condition, in part, at 

 least. 



The commercial phase of the fishing industry is on a much better 

 footing than ever before. The responsible wholesale dealers, recog- 

 nizing the importance of taking care of the supply for the future, are 

 cooperating with the commissioners in their efforts to prevent the 

 sale of undersized fish, and when such fish are received in the regu- 

 lar course of business, they are often the first to insist on turning 



