Nevin. — Fifty Years' Experience in Fish Culture 215 



the results we had expected. This applies also to certain 

 varieties of fish planted in the lakes. 



The spring water at our new St. Croix Falls hatchery- 

 is a regular cure-all and sanitarium for fish. Trout that 

 are hatched from weak eggs seem to receive such in- 

 vigoration that we have practically no losses. The water 

 is much superior to any I have ever had to do with for 

 the raising of trout fry. We have given it a thorough 

 test during the past two hatching seasons, so we feel at 

 this time that we can go ahead and spend money in mak- 

 ing this hatchery one of the best and most useful of any. 

 There may be many more fish-cultural stations in this 

 country that possess water as invigorating to brook trout 

 fry, but I know of only one, namely, that privately owned 

 by Mr. G. Hansen, at Osceola, Wis., about five miles south 

 of St. Croix Falls. It is a commercial trout hatchery 

 where Mr, Hansen has raised and sold many tons of 

 brook trout annually for the past thirty years. His fish 

 have been clean and free from disease during all that time. 

 I claim that this is due to the quality of the water. 



The inbreeding of fish is something that has never 

 been brought to the attention of this Society, to my knowl- 

 edge, and it is a matter which I think is very important. 

 I would be pleased to hear regarding it from those en- 

 gaged in the propagation of brook trout. For the past 

 twenty-five years we have been exchanging and buying 

 eggs from different places, each year endeavoring to get 

 new blood into our stock, but have never had the success 

 desired with the fry hatched from the purchased eggs. 

 In fact, we did not have as good results as we did from our 

 own stock. 



For the past few years we have been getting more 

 soft eggs at spawning and more weak fry with blue sacs 

 at hatching than formerly. We have attributed this to 

 the inbreeding of fish. At every possible opportunity we 



