610 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The female lays her eggs, which are of the size of a pea, from Septem- 

 ber to January, according to different climatic influences, in shallow peb- 

 bly places, between stones, logs of wood, and in little holes which they 

 hollow out in the sand. The male, which follows the female with a sort 

 of rage, squirts the milt over the eggs as they are laid. After the eggs 

 have been impregnated, the fish do not care for them any more, but leave 

 them to the stream. In comparison with other fish, the female of the 

 brook-trout lays only a small number of eggs. By artificial culture, 

 trout have been placed in many brooks where formerly they were not 

 found. The spawning place is usually a small bay with a fiat bottom, 

 and with as much pure gravel as possible, so that the young fish may be 

 protected against their numerous enemies. Such artificial spawning 

 places should be guarded as much as possible by law. 



As the trout do not make long migrations like the salmon, even the 

 proprietor of small fisheries has them constantly within his reach, and 

 can easily raise and feed them. 



Beta, in his work so frequently referred to, on page 189, gives the 

 following advice on trout-raising : 



"Trout require very pure running spring- water, of the greatest possi* 

 ble evenness of temperature, which should be cool in summer and warm 

 in winter, a gravelly bottom, and a shady forest or bushes on the banks. 



" In order to hatch artificially impregnated trout-eggs, and to raise 

 young fish, they have, in their brook or river, to go through a series 

 of ponds. These consist of a succession of artificial ponds or wideniugs, 

 which increase in size toward the mouth of the stream. In the first, 

 which is the one occupying the highest ground, the young fish are kept 

 for about a year, from the beginning of spring. Here care should 

 be taken that they find natural food enough either on the gravelly 

 bottom or between the aquatic plants near the banks, the water-cresses, 

 &c, or artificial food has to be provided for them. Meat that has been 

 chopped very fine and every kind of small worms are best suited for this. 

 Pieces of spoiled meat can also be suspended over the water, from which, 

 during summer, larva3 and maggots will soon fall down in sufficient quan- 

 tity as a welcome food for the fish. They should be separated from 

 the following division by a fine wire-work. In this division, the larger 

 trout are kept till the end of the second year, and are during this time 

 fed with snails, worms, young pike that have just been hatched, and 

 bleak. In the third and fourth divisions, they commence to catch iusects 

 that fly over the water, but larger bleak should be thrown in to them or 

 placed in the water for their food. In the third division, they are kept 

 till the end of the third year; and in the fourth, the grown trout remain 

 till the proprietor either sells them or uses them in his own household. 



"The transfers from one division to another are generally made in the 

 beginning of spring, when the weather gets warmer, say about March. 

 The trout which are ready for the market weigh, on an average, 1£ 

 pounds each, and are so strong and active that they are no longer at- 



