136 Til irIj/'First Ann mil Mceling 



tliiii.u' in tile disciissionf; I have heard here on that point. Xow, 

 1 woukl like to know what dili'erence there is between the wikl 

 trout egg and a good, domesticated trout egg, for hatching 

 purposes. I do not know, hut I slioukl like to. 



]\lr. Titcomb: That subject 1 have studied. I have taken 

 every year for the last six or eight years, eggs of wild trout 

 fi-oni different ponds and streams and have been handling at the 

 same time the eggs of domesticated trout from commercial 

 hatcheries. The eggs from the wild trout in every instance 

 have proven to he the most liardy, and have produced the most 

 hardy fisli : Ijut T am not prei)ared to say that your fish are not 

 just as good for your waters. The longer I investigated this 

 question the more I was inclined to believe that possiljly these 

 domesticated fish had l)ecome accustomed to a certain qualitv 

 of wafer. I think Dr. Bean has touched on this point in connec- 

 tion with the changes brought al)out by domestication. My 

 waters were all extremely cold in the winter, and these eggs of 

 tlie wild trout naturally were accustomed to this extremely cold 

 wafer. 1 think possibly that the eggs of the domesticated trout 

 infr()(hu-ed into our waters suffered very much as do the rainl^ow 

 trout introduced into our extremely cold waters. I do not think 

 it is all weakness in the fish, because in many instances these 

 domesticated eggs have been reported from other stations as 

 yielding a very large per cent of fry, and in some cases have 

 yielded well in fingerlings, also. 



Mr. Lane: Does not the condition of tlie fish depend a 

 great deal on whether they are allowed to breed in and run out, 

 or whether new stock is introduced ? 



^Tr. Titcomb: Oh, yes, I think you want to inti'oduce Jiew 

 blood in your commercial hatcheries every year, and you cannot 

 do that better than by introducing the product of the wild eggs. 



^Ir. Lane: Whether the domesticated parent trout were 

 ])ro|)erly cared for is what I am trying to get at. I believe Dr. 

 Bean said that inbreeding would injure the quality of the eggs. 



Ml-, 'i'itconil) : T think if you take a commercial hatchery 

 and real' trout year afft-r year, and then take the i)roduct of 

 your own brood stock and I'ear them up, you Avill graduallv 

 weaken youi- stock; but in these comparisons I was making 

 between wild and domesticated eggs, I would say that I received 



