Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-01-30
EVERY LAKE is A FARM
Survey Shows There are
Farms Lying Under the
Waters in Lake Region.

L IOOdOly 1lOC very H1dIly ISnCI-
men who ply their lines in the
clear waters of a Wisconsin lake
or stream, have taken the trouble
to find out how the busy little fish
utilities each shining hour in the
business of making a living. There
is a sort of hazy idea that fish
loaf around, waiting for some
foolish grasshopper to fall off the
shore.
The question is answered by a
survey of waters in several Wis
connsin lakes. Much of the ex-
animation has been conducted in
Lake Mendoza, adjoining Madison,
and in Green lake. President E..
A. Birge of the University has
worked on the problem since 1877.
For many years he has been as
sisted by Prof. Chancey Juday of
the department of zoology.
Huge Under Water Crops.
A lake is really an underwater
farm, an area of great fertility,
sustaining intricate systems of
plant and animal life. Plant life
cannot exist without nitrogen,
either under water or ON land
The lakes obtain large supplies of
nitrogen from the waters that
drain into them from adjacent
soils. Examinations in Lake Men
dota show that the amount of sol
uble nitrogen is greatest in the
early spring when water sheds are
being washed by the spring thaws
and rains.
Lake Mendoza has standing
crop of about 214 pounds of dry
material per acre of surface, or a
ton of live material per acre each
year This is not as heavy as one
can obtain in beets or alfalfa on
land but it is an astonishing crop,
when one considers that it is
mostly invisible.
That includes both animal and
plant organisms. These organisms
multiply rapidly with a complete
turnover occurring about once a
month. The yearly output of dry
material for a surface acre would
therefore be IL times 21.4 the lat
ter figure representing the stand
ing crop. This is 2,568 pounds per
acre per annum. This would indi-
cate that there is more going on
within our clear, sparkling wave
let's than one would suspect.
Food Source Is Vast
The larger organisms devour the
smaller, and thus the crop inces-
sanity converts itself from mi
croscopic forms of life into little
creatures fitted out with propel-
lers and power plants, which are
big enough for small fish to rel
ish. Water feas are type of
these creatures. Water feas eat
bacteria and other organisms that
are too small to see with the
naked eye. The little fish eat
the water feas, the big fish eat
the little fish, the fisherman eats
the big fish, and everybody is hap
by.
In addition to the food crop
that fills the entire area of a
lake, there are the aquatic plants,
growing near the shore and in
shallow places, which are an i'm
portant source of food for aqua
tic inhabitants. Most persons re-
fer to them as sea weeds. These
large aquatic plants grow to a
depth of Is feet and produce
1900 pounds of fodder to the
acre-a much larger hay crop
than one would guess. Insects
and worms feed upon the grow
ing plants and by their numbers
invite hungry fish to a happy
hunting ground. The fisherman
knows his game is to be found in
reeds and grasses, and that is
why he drops his line in the
watery forests. Aquatic plants
reach their growth and drift away
to deeper waters, where they sink,
to become the food of bacteria
and animals and start the process
all over again Milwaukee Jour-
nal.