THE GENERAL ROUTINE OF A TROUT HATCHERY. 



By R. L. Ripple, 

 Bayfield Fish Hatchery, Bayfield, Wis. 



Where can there be a line of work more fascinating, or less 

 monotonous as a daily vocation than that of a brook and lake 

 trout hatchery, where many millions of both varieties are handled 

 every year? The trout hatchery is mentioned in this instance in 

 preference to those where other varieties of fish are handled, 

 because the breeders are reared from infancy and kept in the 

 ponds the year round, and must be fed and cared for and kept in 

 a good condition. The fertility of the eggs and the vitality of the 

 little fish which result from the spawning season each year, depend 

 on the manner in which the adult trout have been fed and other- 

 wise cared for, the same as with stock or anything else. 



Where can there be a more contented man than he who in the 

 fall of the year, as the spawning season approaches, removes the 

 thousands of trout breeders of various ages and sizes to the 

 hatchery spawning raceways, and finds them to be fit and ready 

 for the yearly production? The spawning is the fish man's harvest 

 and the results of a year's careful and painstaking work are at hand. 

 Perhaps during the year there were many trials and worries, but 

 the condition of the fish, as they are removed from the ponds to 

 the spawning races, shows that all is well. 



However, strive as the hatchery man will to prevent it, there 

 is always a certain loss of breeders in the stock fish ponds that is 

 put down as unaccountable. We count each year, one by one at 

 spawning time, all the fish put into the ponds. We keep an 

 accurate account of all dead fish removed from each pond during 

 the year, but still there is always a shortage, for the fish in the 

 ponds have many enemies, such as the blue heron, muskrat and 

 kingfisher. The blue heron is one of the greatest consumers of 

 fish that we have to contend with, as it does its work at night, and 

 I have had very good reason to believe that that great vegetarian, 

 the muskrat, will go on a meat diet when he wants to go fishing 

 for a change. There is a much larger number of trout and trout 

 fry consumed every year from the ponds than many people have 

 any idea of. 



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