The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-28
conservation
SPORTSMEN OF
STATE FINALLY
CHANGE STAND
Begin to Realize Work for
Conservation Is
Essential.
BY WILLIAM r. COLLINS
Times Special Writer

embracing a membership Of approx
imately thirty-seven thousand men
interested in fish and game.
To reach this group, the depart
ment publishes one Of the best
monthly magazines Of any conserva-
ton department in the United
States. Each month the whole news
Of the departments activities is
carried. If you have not received
your copy. address the department
Of fish and game.
In looking over the requests that
reach the department for informa-
ton relative to conservation work,
find a large number asking about
neighborhood fish rearing ponds.
Evidently the Indiana fisherman
has finally come to life with the
knowledge that the fish department
can Tot put enough fish into Indi-
ana streams to let him catch his
limit every day.
He has finally awakened to the
fact that a 81 fee will not raise
enough revenue to permit him to
take $50 worth Of agme fish out of
Indiana water each season, permit
the department. to hire enough
game wardens to protect the eggs
and hatch and have enough money
LETT over to carry on the routine of
the department.
1t has taken him a long tmie to
see it and I don't know how his
vision was given birth, even at this
late date.
Fee of 50 Favored
When all of the fishermen and
all of the hunters finally decide that
you only get in this life what you
pay for. they will be ready to ask
for a 81 license to permit the de-
partment to enlarge the scope of its
activities in breeding and protecting
fish and game, in propagating trees
and planting them, and in con-
trolling the multitude of pests that
constantly destroy the fruit of their
activity
One of the most ambitious pro-
jects on foot for a neighbOrhood
pond for the rearing of game fish
is now in the making at Monticello.
I want to review this to show you
how easily you with a group work
ing in YOUR own bailiwick can get a
start in the production of all the
game fish you consume locally. Be
selfish about it. Produce them and
release them in your own neighbor-
hood streams and then protect them
against the predatory fish dog who
uses dynamite and seins to &C
complish in the dead of night what
he hasn't the CUTS to do in day
light.
A little education might help
matters along and the most effective
way to do it is to get these fish
pirates into your organization so
that they may help rear fish. l
know from experience.
water Wheel Used
There will be seven ponds at Mon
ticello near the Norway bridge head
covering about six or seven acres OF
ground. The water will be taken
from the Tippecanoe river. The
ponds are on leased land belonging
to the Northern Indiana Power
Company which operates the two
hydro-e electric dams on the Tippe-
canoe.
1t was not possible to pipe water
from the dams to the ponds, first,
because Of the cost of the pipe and
second. because the power equiva-
lent would be about so a day. So,
it was suggested that a water wheel
twenty feet in diameter built on the
frame work of a Fordson tractor
wheel be erected in the swift water
at the bridge head so that buckets
attached to the spokes could dip
water from the channel and pour it
through a sluice way into the ponds.
For your information, a wheel
twenty feet in diameter with four
teen blades 5 feet by Is inches
dipped into a current flowing six
miles an hour will raise approx
mately 5000 gallons of water an
hour at no expense save the first
cost Of the wheel and that should
not exceed SIS. This is more than
enough for seven acres of ponds as
it only takes 1000 gallons of water
a day to make up for evaporation
losses and seepage on one acre Of
water. The rest of the water will
carry a large amount OF animalculae
to feed the spawn so that will re-
duce the cost of feeding to low
figure.
Bass Grow Quickly
A little pond that is now run by
the sportsmen of Monticello, near
the Springboro bridge. is fed by
springs. Sixty parent bass were
placed IN this pond not more than
an acre in extent last spring. and
last fall $4,000 baby bass were re-
moved from it and put in the Tip
pecanoe.
Most Of these bass we're six inches
long and some of them. believe it
or not, we're ten inches long, nearly
large enough to take.
could hardly believe that a ten
4AANAA hels,o NOAAAN1 AC SAOMAA III OA4C
season, but there they were. The
boys at Huntington and at Logans-
port told me they raised a large
number of nine and ten ''inchers"
in one season.
With the new ponds at Norway
fed by an overabundance of water
from the river carrying natural food.
the bass removed from them should
be amply able TO take care of
themselves when released
Get behind a local project now.
Don't wait for the conservation de-
partment to satisfy your desire for
immediate results. The depart
ment can't do it for a 81 a head.
Either sween the kitty or get busy
on your own pond. tell you it is
lots OF FUN, especially when you
see the big boys come out Of the
rearing pond in the fall.