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FEBRUARY, 1944 
Georgia Man 
Here Again 
f : 
(Well, fellows, here’s ole’ Jim 
Reeve, back in the columns again 
this issue, and we're mighty glad 
to have him. He’s really got some- 
_ thing down there in Georgia with 
that hatchery of his, and if you 
want to know where you can buy 
warm water fish, just let him 
know what you need. He’s ot ’em.) 

— 
tees 
BOUT ten years ago Jim 
5 Reeve,, down in Calhoun, 
Georgia, decided that he wanted a 
_ fishing lake of his own. He pur- 
chased an old farm ;with a large 
spring on it and built a small lake 
of five acres. This was stocked 
_ with small mouth bass and blue 
gill bream. 
This water seemed to be very 
' suitable for the propagation of 
.bass and bream and he soon found 
that he was producing many more 
young fish than he had water 
available for growing these fish 
to adults. On investigation outlets 
for surplus production Mr. Reeve 
discovered that there was a very 
good demand for small fish for re- 
stocking purposes and his sur- 
plus fish were readily sold to dif- 
ferent states, clubs and individuals 
throughout the Eastern U. S. 
As the project developed and de- 
mand increased, the owner decided 
- to sell out his oil business and de- 
vote all of his time to the fish 
hatchery. In 1940 additional land 
was secured and a large hatchery 
built. A program was begun to 
build up a brood school of large 
mouth bass, small mouth bass, 
blue gill bream,  shell-cracker 
_ bream, (strawberry bream) and 
crappie. The results were most sat- 
- isfactory. The hatchery now has 
- some 75 acres under water and in 
POP: = DO ae aie 

Ss hee 
\ 
Se 
ss sa 
- full production of two million fish 
- annually. 
_. Fish, Any Way You Want’ Em - 
Some bass are sold as fry, or 
baby bass, which they have suc- 
P) cessfully | shipped by Railway Ex- 
 pres@all over the U. S. from coast 
to coast. The majority of the pro- 
duction of bass and other three 
specie are sold and delivered as 
two-inch fingerling. These are sold 
with a live delivery ‘guarantee all 
the way from Maine to Texas. Un- 
til further research permits, 1500 
miles appears to be the limit for 
_ gatisfactory delivery of finger- 
lings. Some adult fish are sold to 
states and clubs for brood pur- 
poses but the output of adult fish 
is very limited, and delivery of 
them is a much greater problem. 
Fingerling are delivered in two 
, ways. Small orders are shipped in 
10 or 20 gallon containers by Rail- 
way Express. Large orders are de- 
livered in specially designed live 
fish transport trucks. These 
trucks were designed and built by 
Mr. Reeve. Quite a large number 
of delivery difficulties have been 
met and overcome so that they 
are now able to make most satis- 
factory deliveries to any point 
within 1500 miles. 
‘The hatchery and farm around 
it have been given the Cherokee 
Indian name’ of Amakanata 
(Spring of the Lucky Hunter) aft- 
er the large spring on the place. 
They also own some 600 acres of 
land which gives water-shed con- 
trol for the hatchery. The land is 
used for production of timber, beef 
-\eattle and small grain. A crew of 
six men operate the farm and 
hatchery. 
Development Not Easy 
The development of this hatch- 
ery has not been easy sailing by 
any means. Many problems have 
been met and solved through the 
* trial and error method and through 
suggestions and advice given by 
the personnel of U. S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service and the different 
state departments of wildlife. Both 
federal and state departments have 
been most cooperative with Jim 
in the development of this project 
which now ranks as one of the 
largest privately owned commer- 
cial warm water game fish hatch- 
eries in this country. The business 
is operated as a supplement to the 
different state and federal wildlife 


~ 
lwill be keeping the number of 


























two more years time will reach 
( THE FISH-CULTURIST NEWS 
——— 
ee 
FARM FISH PONDS 
(a | 
ARMERS and land owners are 
_ building fish’ ponds today as 
ffiey have never built before and 
the building will continue on the 
farms until -every land-owning 
farmer will have a good producing 
fish pond. We are learning that 
fish can be produced cheaper than 
any other meat. As to why it has 
taken us so long to wake up to this 
fact is a question that probably 
some of our good readers can an- 
swer for us. 
The fish pond on the farm is not 
only going to provide a part of the 
meat for the farmers table, but to 
some it is going to provide an an- 
nual income. The size of this in- 
come will depend on the size of the 
pond. The location of the pond 
doesn’t seem to bother as we have 
automobiles and good roads and 
where there is good fishing the 
fishermen usually find the place. 
No fisherman minds paying a dol- 
lar fee to fish in a pond that he 
knows contains plenty of fish. The 
trouble the pond owner will have 

fishermen down to the correct 
number to keep them from taking 
all the fish out of his pond. Of 
course the pond owner will have 
to have a bag Imiit on the number 
of fish that one fisherman can 
take in one day, as there are some 
folks who fish who don’t know 
when to stop. » 
The fish pond that is construct- 
ed and maintained in keeping with 
today’s specifications can be ex- 
pected to produce from 150 to 300 
pounds of fish per acre per year. 
Lots of farmers will be able to 
build a fish pond without spending 
any extra money as the work can 
be done after the crops are laid by 
and gathered. 
Those of you who are going to 
build fish ponds and have never 
had any experience in building 
dams for holding water, let me 
suggest that you obtain the best 
information you can get before 
you start your dam. Any one can 
build a dam, but there are a few 
factors to be known before you 
start, if you want the dam _ to 
stay. This information is furnished 
by |the U. S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, Dept. of Interior, Chicago, 
54, Ill., or we have a booklet (the 
best in the world) telling how to 
select the site, lay out the dam, 
build the dam, build the spillway, 
put in the drain, how to stock the 
pond with fish, kind of fish to 
stock with, kind of natural food 
to put in the pond, and how to fer- 
tilize the pond, in fact it just 
about answers any question you 
would want to know in building or 
stocking a fish pond. If you want 
this bqgok send one dollar.to The 
Fish Pond Editor, P. O. Box, 455, 
Durant, Okla. 
Next edition I hope to have 
something on fertilizer for your 
pond. If you have a question you 
would like to have answered on 
pond construction, stocking or fer- 
tilizer send it in with your name 
and address, the answer is free. 
Yours for better fishing, 
THE FISH POND EDITOR. 
—— 

services and the management is at 
all times ready and willing to co- 
operate fully with other wildlife 
organizations. 
Mr. Reeve is quite an ardent 
fishing fan. He has acquired quite 
a reputation in his state on his 
talk to different lucnheon clubs on 
“Small Mouth Bass.” His under- 
taking is rather unique and he ex- 
pects to demonstrate that a pri- 
vately owned commercial hatchery 
can be made practical and profit- 
able. My 
(Maybe in the next issue we 
can persuade Jim to send in that 
“Small Mouth Bass” talk of his 
and find out what he’s been 
telling those club guys.’ Eh, 
Jim? Come again.) 
——$—<$_—<$ ae 
We want to thank Mr., Boone, a 
contractor, of Chicago, for the fine 
story he wrote and sent in. It’s a 
dandy, Mr. Boone. 
———_—<—— EE 
THE FISH-CULLURIST NEWS 
Box 455 — Durant, Okla. 
































Water Pollution 
Kentucky Problem 
We have in Kentucky more 
miles of running water than in any 
other state of the Union. With this 
large mileage of running streams, 
you can readily see the added 
work that is involved in keeping 
down pollution, and patrolling this! 
large mileage of water. 
One of the most destructive 
things to fish life with which we 
have to contend at the present 
time is that of the pollution of our 
public waters. This contamination 
is caused by many things such as 
copperas water flowing from our 
coal mines; oil waste dumped into 
the streams from our oil wells, and 
refineries; sawdust from our saw- 
mills, and city sewage from hun- 
areds of cities and towns; and 
waste from the thousands of fac- 
tories located along the banks of 
our streams. But probably the 
most common and one of the most 
destructive (in Kentucky) is that 
of distillery slop and waste. This 
sewage does not directly kill the 
fish but as it deteriorates it uses 
the oxygen up in the water and 
throws off carbondioxide, result- 
ing in the total destruction of the 
fish or the driving of them away 
from their homes. 
The great Ohio river, which 
forms one of the boundaries of our 
state, has been practically de- 
pleted of all marine life as far 
down as Maysville, Ky. Because of 
offenders above our state bounda- 
ries, such as the great steel cor- 
porations of Pittsburgh, and other 
large cities of the eastern section, 
also city sewage from the same 
communities; we have lost one of 
our best fishing streams. This pol- 
lution of the Ohio river is beyond 
the control of the state of Ken- 
tucky and must be dealt with by 
the federal government. Thus far 
nothing has been done, with the 
exception-of the introduction into 
‘congress of the--Barkley-Vinson 
anti-pollution bill, ‘which was 
amended to the extent that its 
passage meant practically nothing 
and even then the bill was defeat- 
ed. It has been estimated by Dr. 
H. Garman, head of the depart- 
ment of entomology and botany of 
the University of Kentucky, at 
Lexington, Ky., that the pollution 
is moving down the Ohio river, 
killing all marine life as it. goes, 
at the rate of eight miles a year. 
That means our fishing waters 
are being destroyed at the same 
rate and there is nothing we can 
do about it. Restocking of these 
polluted streams with additional 
fish is merely a waste of time and 
money and for that reason we are 
helpless to stock these streams. 
The division of game and fish of 
Kentucky up until the time of the 
war had a man in the field who 
was studying the conditions of the 
streams as to pollution, food, oxy- 
gen content of the water, amount 
of silt deposited in the beds of the 
streams. This man, a graduate bi- 
ologist, keeps the director and su- 
perintendent of hatcheries posted 
as to his findings and in this way 
we were able to reach a definite 
conclusion as to the streams that 
should and can be restocked and 
as to the kinds of fish to restock 
them with that are best suited for 
that particular body of water. 
This biological stream study 
\ 
proved very successful and I firm- 
ly believe that it is one of the im- 
portant factors in solving our 
own fish restocking problems. 
In conclusion, I would like to 
say that you sportsmen, and es- 
pecially you fishermen, if you 
want better fishing you will have 
to cooperate with your law en- 
forcing agencies to. stop. this 
stream pollution and to see that 
j every law pertaining to the taking 
of fish is abided by and with that 
help I am sure that your division 
of game and fish will see that you 
get fishing aplenty. 
By FRANK P. PHIPPS 
Supt. of Hatcheries 
Div. of Game and Fish 
Frankfort, Ky. 
——————aa a 
If you want bullfrogs, write Vol 
Brashears at Berryville, Ark. 






















Tadpole Control 
Is Explained 
By GLENN GENTRY 
Supt., Flintville, Tenn. Hatchery 
After wrestling with large vol- 
umes of bullfrog tadpoles and see- 
ing them literally smother young 
bass because of this volume, the 
writer decided to try eliminating 
this problem at the Flintville state 
fish hatchery. 
Usually, only the tadpoles of the 
| bullfrog are found in the ponds 
during the draining season, be- 
cause the bullfrog tadpole requires 
a longer time to develop into a 
frog than do any of the other spe- 
cies of frogs and toads. A late 
spawning by the leopard. frog 
might happen occasionally but not 
often. 
The bullfrog and green frog are 
the only ones which deposit their 
eggs on the surface of the water. 
The green frog eggs won't be en- 
countered as often since this frog 
prefers a more secluded area for 
spawning. The eggs of these two 
frogs may be recognized by ap- 
pearance, a film of gelatinous ma- 
terial dotted with thousands of 
blackish eggs with a whitish area 
on the under surface. These masses 
are usually anchored to some un- 
der-water vegetation near the edge 
of the ponds. 
We began taking out all egg 
masses as soon as they appeared 
in the spring ‘of 19438. Not more 
than 50 egg masses were found 
and removed during the spawning 
season. It began on April 12, and 
the last eggs were found about 
June 6. Most of the eggs were 
found after a warm spell of weath- 
er which lasted several days with 
the thermometer staying above 50 
degrees during these periods. 
Very few tadpoles were found in 
any of the ponds when we drained 
them during late August. The 
smallmouth bass ponds had the 
most tadpoles since this species 
of fish seems not to prefer tadpoles 
as food. 
Hatchery conditions naturally 
vary with ‘geographical locations 
and climate, but by studying the 
life histories of the frogs in that 
particular vicinity, one should be 
able to cope with any problem 
which frogs and toads might bring 
about by their spawning habits. 
The bullfrogs could be caught be- 
fore spawning but their legs are 
considered to be a choice food item. 



























































Highschool Boy 
Joins Our Rank 
* A. F. Nordstrom highschool stu- 
dent of Santa Ana, Calif., after 
receiving a copy of the first issue, 
writes that he likes The Fish- 
Culturist News and wants to be a 
subscriber. He says: 
“T received a copy of your first 
edition from Mr. Brashears over in 
Arkansas. I like The Fish-Cultur- 
ist News very much. You see, I 
am 17 and go to hgihschool here 
in my hometown. I always have 
been interested in wildlife, and 
have had many peculiar pets. 
“J like helping wildlife better 
than destroying it, as most fellows 
do. 
“T am now raising pheasants. I 
haven’t a very large lot, but I 
keep them in a 20x8 ft. pen. I am 
now going to try raising frogs. I 
would like to subscribe to your 
newspaper as soon as_ possible. 
Send me subscription price. Write 
if I can be of any help to you,’ 
Well, fellows, that’s*the way one 
young fellow feels about it, and 
one of his kind is worth more 
than a hundred poarchers. 
We'll bet this young fellow finds 
sale for every one of his pheasants 
after this story has been out a 
while. If you raise any frogs, A. 
F., let us know about it, and we'll 
tell ’em about what you have, and 
you won’t have any trouble selling 
every last one of ’em. 
This is at least some evidence 
that if the oldsters will leave the 
young fellows a good supply of 
wildlife that the young fellows will 
take care of it. 

PAGE 7 

SSS een 
NEW HATCHERY 
DIETS 
ee 
Fish must have food to live and 
grow just as any Speers living’ 
thing. Wild fish secure the type of 
food they like or what they can 
get from the waters where they 
live. Some species often roam over 
considerable areas in search of the 
desired meals. 
Hatchery fish are confined in 
small ponds, tanks, etc., in such 
large numbers as to make it im- 
possible for natural food forms to 
develop in sufficient numbers to 
provide an adequate supply. 
This is particularly true in trout 
hatcheries! where thousands of 
fingerlings are reared in troughs 
or small tanks. In bass and warm 
water fish hatcheries the small 
fish are hatched or placed in larg- 
er ponds which have been ferti- 
lized to such an extent that a fair 
supply of small water “bugs” are 
available for the fry and finger- 
lings. These daphna and kindred 
forms are too small to interest 
the adult fish, and as there are no 
suitable foods present other than 
their own young, they must be fed. 
Before the war, there were sev- 
eral sources of commercial ma- 
terials that made good fish food. 
Liver, hearts, entrils, and similar 
meat products were largely used. 
These were often mixed with ce- 
reals, vitamins, etc., to provide a 
cheaper and in some cases a bet- 
ter feed. Now people are learning 
to eat kidneys, spleans, hearts, etc. 
and ‘since there has not. been 
enough left over for the fish, other 
sources have had to be located. 
The cereal part of the mixture 
(where used) can for the most part 
still be obtained in some form or 
another. 
Some hatcheries have for years 
secured part of their require- 
ments from sources otner than the 
packing plants. Old farm animals, 
carp, suckers, etc., have been most 
frequently used. In former years 
this was for the sake of economy. 
Now it is a case of necessity. Car- 
cusses of coyotes and other trap- 
ped anmials which were formerly 
thrown away are now being used 
for feed. This search for fish feed 
has been a burden to hatchery- 
men who were already short of 
help and are restricted, even as 
you, in their gasoline and tire con- 
sumption. , 
However, as in most similar 
cases, some good has come from 
these difficulties. ‘Thousands of 
pounds of useless rough fish have 
been removed from lakes and 
streams to make little game grow 
big for the boys when they come 
home. Also meat which was for- 
merly used for feeding the fish has 
helped to feed people who had a 
job to do. 
Business Corner 
This column is designed to 
save us a lot of letter writing, 
and at the same time give us an 
opportunity to shine the light on 
happenings concerning the pa- 
per. If you have any items for 
this column, send them in. 
— are sorry to report that we 
_ did not pick up one single , 
bit of information for the fellow 
up in Michigan who had an article 
in the last issue. He wanted to 
know how to go about getting a 
lease on a stream and where to 
buy brown trout. Since we didn’t 
pick up any information for you, 
sir, we suggest that you write 
your state game and fish commis- 
sion at the capitol and find out 
what you have to:do to secure 
trout for stocking purposes. See a 
lawyer about leasing the stream. 
Yes, we received your subscrip- 
tion, and thanks. 
If you want fingerling channel 
catfish for stocking purposes, 
write the editor your needs. If a 
sufficient number want these fish, 
we will raise a few of them this 
year. Let us know early, so we 
may know how many to raise. 
They will cost you five cents each, 
plus the Express, and will be de- 
livered when the weather gets cool 
next fall. 

