50 



out a cause; this was a field of study apparently so obscure and 

 intangible that it presented great difficulties. Here the trinrapliant 

 skill which hatched the eggs successfully was baffled, and it seemed 

 for a time as if the wonderful art which bad promised so much was 

 to come to a stand-still at this gulf, between the eggs and the year- 

 ling trout, which could not be bridged. 



Those who made the earliest practical experiments in this country 

 will uTidoubtedly recall, with me, the anxiety which was at one time 

 felt, lest the difficulties of bridging this chasm would prove insur- 

 mountable. This task has now, happily, in my humble opinion, been 

 performed. 



I am a thorough believer in the practicability of raising the young 

 trout. I think the question now is not, how can young trout be 

 raised, but how many can do it, and under what circumstances can it 

 be done successfully. 



I know there is a good deal of skepticism in high quarters about 

 the possibility of keeping young fry alive through the first six 

 months of feeding, and I am aware that some of the best authorities 

 say that a considerable per centage will die unavoidably during tliat 

 time. Mr. Stephen H. Ainsworth, in a letter to the writer, says that 

 a considerable per centage of the eggs, when impregnated, are prema- 

 ture, and consequently produce an imperfectly developed fish, which 

 cannot live. 



Colonel Theodore Lyman, in the report of the Massachusetts Fish- 

 eries Commission, says, " All remained remarkably healthy till May, 

 when a certain number were observed to be weakly. It is likely that 

 they were naturally sicMy, and when the yolk sac was gone, they 

 had not enough vitality to feed." 



And Seth Green speaks, in his book on trout culture, as if there 

 were necessarily a great mortality among the young fry, and says, 

 " "We don't know what is the matter with them, nor how to cure 

 them." 



I^ow, I wish at the outset to express distinctly my deference to 

 authorities so high — indeed I know of none higher ; but I must never- 

 theless venture to disagree with them, if they mean that there is any 

 necessary inherent cause of death in the young fry, which cannot be 

 removed. 



Some will die, say five per cent, though it ought to be less than 

 this, of weak constitutions. They are born into the world so weakly 

 constituted that they cannot stand the wear and tear of life, and must 

 die. 



