34 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



upright position, and confined by a spring catch or latch. This 

 confines the fish which may happen to be in the race, and none 

 of them can get below. The pan is then lowered to its position, 

 the roller turned, and the eggs taken. When the operation is fin- 

 ished the screen is again lowered, the button turned, and the work 

 is done. If the box is wide, say four feet, it is more convenient 

 to have the pan made in two or three sections, inserted in 

 a light frame, as the eggs can be more easily carried in and 

 poured out of a shorter pan. It is better, perhaps, to make the 

 screen to open in the middle, having hinges at both sides. Then 

 one half will keep the fish in the pond, and the other half the fish 

 in the race, from running into the well. The box can be made of 

 any length from four feet to forty feet, and of any width from two 

 feet to six or eight. If it is made very wide, an additional longi- 

 tudinal support must be provided for the revolving screen. We 

 recommend the following dimensions for speckled-trout races : 

 two feet wide, and from ten to twenty feet long ; or four feet 

 wide, and from twenty to forty feet long. The upper screens may 

 be made in convenient sections, the whole width of the box, and 

 six or eight feet long. 



The end screens are so made that while a full current is per- 

 mitted to flow over the upper screens, only a gentle current can 

 flow through the under part of the box. This current is meant 

 to be so regulated that when the pan is placed about an inch 

 from the turning-roller, all the small stones which the trout may 

 whip through the upper screen will fall short of the pan ; the 

 eggs, being lighter, will be carried by the current into the pan, 

 while a great part of the dirt, etc., which may collect on the 

 under screen will be carried up over the pan and entirely out of 

 the box. The revolving screen may be made of tarred muslin or 

 mosquito-netting. But wire-cloth (of ten or twelve meshes to 

 the inch) keeps much the cleanest, and we are inclined to think 

 it best for the purpose. I make my aprons half wire-cloth and 

 half tarred muslin, furnishing the wire only with cross-bars, and 

 always leaving it uppermost. This apron is fastened around the 

 rollers by a lacing of cord. At the end of the season the water 

 in the pond can be drawn down a foot, and everything taken out 



