eggs from intruders and will fan them with his 

 tail and fins. The male's action keeps a continu- 

 ous flow of fresli water over the eggs, and keeps 

 silt from settling on them. When only one fish 

 stays in the nest, we explore the nest with our 

 hands to learn whether the eggs have been laid. 

 The 2,000 to 8,000 eggs in a nest usually have eye- 

 spots in about 5 days, and the fry may appear 3 

 or 4 days later. At this hatchery we move the 

 fry at once to a small, carefully cleaned pond and 

 start feeding a commercial food that has been put 

 through a very fine food chopper. 



Now let's go over to the fish-holding shed. We 

 make up a delivery schedule early in the year, 

 and we need a backlog of fish of various species 

 to avoid a delay in loading the truck. This 

 truck has oxygen and cooling equipment that 

 makes it possible to deliver thousands of fish of 

 all sizes in good condition for planting. To stock 

 the holding shed, we take fish of suitable sizes 



from the ponds whenever we can and then hold 

 the fish in these tanks. 



And that comi^letes this visit to a fish hatchery. 

 When you have an opportunity, visit some of the 

 other Fish and Wildlife Service hatcheries. All 

 these hatcheries work to raise greater numbers of 

 healthy fish as cheaply as possible, and to stock 

 them in waters that will feed and shelter fish until 

 they are caught by fishermen. 



Each Federal hatchery is set up by a special act 

 of Congress to serve a definite need in a particular 

 section of the country. More than 17 million fish- 

 ermen spent more than $33 million for State fish- 

 ing licenses alone in the year ending June 30, 1952. 

 And some States do not require licenses for mil- 

 lions of other fishermen — veterans, women, and 

 young anglers. 



So when you are fishing, for free or with a 

 license, remember that your Federal and State 

 fish hatcheries help make this sport possible. 



HATCHING TROUGHS FOR TROUT 



