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well-equipped hatchery will take care of the eggs of more than 300 
such fish and turn out about 50,000,000 fry annually. 
Under our law, the pike-perch caught in Illinois water is not 
marketable fish. Our supply of this splendid table fish comes largely 
from Wisconsin, Michigan and Lake Erie. 
Your commission hopes to make this fish so plentiful in our own 
waters that it will be possible to supply at least our own markets. 
We must. not, therefore, regard the pike-perch merely as a fish to 
furnish sport to the angler. Under proper cultivation this fish will 
become an important factor in our system of food supply, and should 
ultimately reach the consumer at a much lower price than is now paid 
for it in our market. 
LARGE-MOUTHED BLACK BASS. 
For many reasons the large-mouthed black bass is one of our most 
important fish, if not, in fact, the most important. 
As a game fish we have nothing superior to the large-mouthed black 
bass unless it is his near relative, the small-mouthed bass. As a table 
fish, he is by many regarded as the equal of the pike-perch, particularly 
when caught in cold water. 
The large-mouthed black bass is peculiar in that he thrives in the 
cold, spring-fed lakes of the north and the more sluggish and warmer 
waters of the south. 
In a state of nature the black bass is prolific in spite of the fact 
that it does not yield a great quantity of spawn. It belongs to the 
group of fishes that are nest builders, and deposits its spawns in a well- 
prepared nest, which it watches over faithfully until the fry are hatched, 
when they are driven to the shore by the parent fish, where suitable food 
is to be had. 
The bass is among the few variety of fishes that do not respond to 
the artificial hatching process. The spawn and milt cannot be taken 
from the female and male to be used in a hatchery. The artificial propa- 
gation of bass must therefore be: carried on in ponds so arranged as to 
protect the fry from the cannibalistic depredations of the mature fish. 
The Spring Grove bass ponds, not yet completed, are so constructed 
that the parent fish and fry may be separated at the end of the hatching 
season, and the fry may thus be held for distribution until the cool 
weather of the fall. At this time they will stand transportation much 
better than in the summer months, both on account of the temperature 
and the more vigorous condition of the fry themselves. Moreover, bass 
fry distributed in the fall will be in better condition to escape the dan- 
gers that beset all fish fry in their natural element, than they would be 
if distributed earlier in the season. 
The bass ponds at Spring Grove will yield approximately 1,000,000 
fry a year. This will be sufficient to stock the lakes and streams in 
the northern part of the State. For supplying the good bass waters in 
the middle and southern sections of the State with bass fry, other ponds 
conveniently located are necessary. 
