FISH CULTURE 



CHAPTEE I 

 POND-CULTURE OF BLACK BASS 



When the propagation of bass was first un- 

 dertaken in the United States, it was speedily 

 discovered that it is impossible to express eggs 

 and milt artificially from the ripe female and 

 male. The handling of ripe bass produces a 

 nervous condition which prevents their eject- 

 ment, and affects even a fish taken from the 

 nest in the act of spawning. Fish-culturists 

 were then driven to resort to pond-culture ; that 

 is, to prepare bodies "of water in which the fish 

 might naturally spawn and hatch their young. 



Temperature and Volvme of Water. — ^As 

 bass naturally inhabit warmer waters than 

 trout, it follows that water for a bass-cultural 

 plant in the Northern States must not be 

 directly from a spring or be of low temperature. 



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