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X 



A TROUT RACEWAY 



the larger the trout must be for legal fishing, the 

 longer we must hold and feed them. It takes at 

 least a year to raise legal-size rainbows here, and 

 most of the Federal hatcheries now have to hold 

 and feed greater numbers of trout to legal size. 



Over here is one of the raceways containing 

 rainbow trout. While we wait for the feed to be 

 brouglit from the hatchery, let's take a look at this 

 raceway. It's about 80 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 

 3 feet deep, and has a sloping floor. Since trout 

 like cold water, with temperatures between 45° 

 and 60° F., and a fast current, spring water is 

 brought through an intake pipe and passed out 

 through an outlet pipe in a flow that would fill 

 the raceway twice in an hour. When we want to 

 remove some fish or to clean a part of the raceway, 

 we send less water into the raceway and then the 

 fish gather in the shallower end where the water 

 enters. The raceway is made of concrete to save 

 our trout from crayfish, snakes, rats, and other 

 predators. Concrete also makes it easier to scrub 

 the raceway and keep the water clean and sanitary. 



Trout need constant care; disease can cause 

 great losses very quickly. Keeping the raceways 

 clean is only part of the job. From the time we 

 take the eggs to the time we plant the fish, we 

 constantly disinfect, give drugs to prevent or cure 



illnesses, feed diets to produce strong and vigorous 

 fish, and separate healthy fish from unhealthy 

 fish. 



As you can see, the food these trout are busily 

 snapping up is being squeezed out of a ricer much 

 like the ricer used at home for potatoes. When 

 these trout were first put here as 2-inch finger- 

 lings, we used a I'icer with much smaller holes. 



We distribute the strings of food over this feed- 

 ing area so that all the trout can get a fair share. 

 LTneaten food is wasted and must be removed before 

 it spoils. Aside from causing added work in clean- 

 ing the raceway, wasted food is an actual loss to 

 the hatchery. The diet for these large trout is a 

 mixture of dry meals and meat products. It con- 

 tains the amounts of proteins and vitamins that 

 are needed to make the fish grow fast and to keep 

 them strong and healthy. 



Some of these trout will be held as brood or 

 parent fish for the next season. 



Let's go into the hatchery building now, and see 

 how tlie new crop is started. The small rooms 

 contain our foods and the meat freezer. We thaw 

 large pieces of frozen meat, grind them, and mix 

 whatever dry food the diet m.ay require. To avoid 

 loss of food values, we make up only one day's 

 feeding at a time. 



Probably you have watched egg-laying fish in 

 your home or school aquariums. There, ripe males 



MIXING FOOD 



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