TREATMENT OF YOUNG SALMONOIDS AND COEEGONI. G91 



little animals like themselves, and that these animals would either pro- 

 duce live offspring or lay summer eggs, and thus soon again fill the 

 water with milliards of young crustaceans. 



Young salmon or trout placed in the water at the coldest season of 

 the year — towards Christmas or New Year, or even four to five weeks 

 later — find the water almost empty of animal life. Only a few stragglers 

 of the more hardy Cyclops kind are still swimming about. Otherwise, 

 everything is dead. The young salmon or trout therefore seek for food 

 in vain. Days will pass before they can catch a single crustacean ; they 

 grow weak and miserable, and become an easy prey to their numerous 

 enemies. 



These young salmon and trout, however, which were placed in the 

 water towards the end of April or middle of May, found their table already 

 spread. Numberless swarms of different little aquatic animals filled the 

 water, and often it would require only the opening of the mouth to obtain 

 ample food. It is a pleasure to watch these little fish during April or 

 May. The little stomach is filled almost to bursting, and you can almost 

 see the fish grow. In a very short time such fish have far outstripped 

 their poorly-fed brothers, which were placed in the water a few months 

 so.oner. The well-known farmers' rule, that if you wish to raise fine 

 cattle you must give the animals good strong food whilst they are young, 

 applies likewise to fish. 



Only he who having eyes to see does not wish to see can, after what 

 has been said, advocate the spring-water theory. 



Fish hatched in spring water having a temperature of 7 to 8° Keau- 

 niur are in nowise fit to be placed in open water. Such artificially 

 hatched fish can only be raised in inclosed waters by artificial feeding. 



In nature a trout will, as a general rule, never go close up to the spring 

 for the purpose of spawning ; and whenever it is done, the quantity of 

 water is so small that its temperature is altogether influenced by the 

 temperature of the air. 



In some rivers which are "rivers" almost from their springs, and 

 where consequently the temperature of the water cannot be much in- 

 fluenced by that of the air, the trout will not spawn till March. This is, 

 e. (j., the case in the river Blane, near Pdaubeuren, in Wiirtemberg. The 

 snlmon almost exclusively spawn in the open river, where for months 

 the temperature of the water is almost zero (Reaumur). 



I therefore say, if so-called artificial pisciculture can so far not boast 

 of any great results, the sole cause must be found in the very generally 

 employed method of hatching in spring water. 



If pisciculturists, therefore, in spite of having placed young fish in 

 open waters year after year, have not been able to see any increase in 

 their stock of fish, a searching investigation will invariably reveal the 

 fact that "artificial" pisciculture, in the truest sense of the word, has 

 been the cause; in other words, that young fish hatched in warm spring 

 water, effeminate beings, had been placed in the open water. 



