THE GAME BREEDER 187 



are ripe and it is only the eggs of the fish eat the little ones." By way of illus- 



ripe fish which are made use of in the tration, we may have 25 pairs of black 



hatchery. bass in a pond of one or two acres in 



(The portion of the talk, relating to area. They may produce on an average 



the trout was illustrated with lantern 4,000 fry. This 100,000 fry, left to seek 



slides of a trout spawning bed, trout eggs their own food, will devour each other 



and fry in various stages of development and be devoured more or less by other 



as they appear in the water, methods of enemies, but the reduction in numbers 



trapping fish, taking and fertilizing eggs, during three or four months in the sum- 



etc.) • mer is due very largely to the cannibal- 



The black bass and allied species do ism among themselves, and if 10,000 



not submit to manipulation for taking fingerlings 3 inches in length are ob- 



and fertilizing their eggs, but fortunate- tained from the 100,000 fry it will be a 



ly a very large percentage of the eggs very good crop— in other words, it will 



are fertilized when the spawning func- be just as safe to remove 50,000 of the 



tions are permitted to occur naturally, fry from the pond soon after they have 



and the parent fish care for and protect been hatched and distribute them to 



the young until the latter are free swim- other waters to fight their own way and 



mers. The cultivation of these fishes, still expect to obtain from the pond a 



therefore, consists in providing ponds crop of fingerlings equal in number to 



which shall give to the maximum number that which would have been obtained, 



of breeding fish and their young all the provided all of the product of the 25 



essential conditions of a natural environ- pairs of bass had been allowed to remain 



ment, while at the same time protecting there and eat each other until they were 



them from their enemies and holding three or four months old. 



them under control. One of the most recent methods of 



Unlike the trout, the male black bass obtaining young bass for stocking waters 



makes the nest, leads the female to it is by going to public ponds or lakes in 



after which they expel their eggs and which bass are not wanted. As you 



milt simultaneously. Then the female know, throughout New England and 



takes her departure. The male stands New York, a great many lakes have 



guard over the nest until the eggs have been stocked with bass which are not 



hatched and after a few days the fry suitable for them, or to put it another 



begin to arise, spread out, settle back way, are better suited to trout or salmon, 



on the beds at night, spread out a little Many of these lakes are being promoted 



more the next day, settle back on the for trout or salmon and in such waters 



beds at night, and after a few days the bass may be taken at any time to good 



sac is absorbed and they scatter around advantage. Taking advantage of the 



the shores and seek their own food, nesting habits, it is possible to put a 



Then, the old male either goes to work cylindrical cloth screen around the nest 



and gets another wife and raises an- while it is protected by the old bass, 



other brood, or joins his companions in first driving away the old bass; then 



the lake. The chief obstacle to a large when the eggs hatch, the young of the 



production of young bass is the fact that same age may be removed and placed in 



the spawning period may extend over a some pond containing no fish whatever 



month or six weeks and one nest of little but in which there has been an intensive 



fishes which has a three days start over cultivation of the minute aquatic life 



an adjoining nest may, after it has at- upon which bass feed. Thus, great 



tained the age of two or three weeks be quantities of young bass may be obtained 



able to exterminate all of the little fish at comparatively small expense, and re- 



which hatch a few days later. This tained in small ponds, under control, 



cannibalism of the young bass where the until they have reached a suitable age 



little ones eat the smaller ones, is quite for distribution to larger waters, 



as pronounced as the cannibalism gener- The aesthetic as well as the recrea- 



ally spoken of when we say that "the big tional features of angling alone are of 



