American Fisheries Society 177 



very fine. But I have noticed one very decided difference in different 

 lots of these eggs handled side by side with eggs from wild trout. 

 There is a great difference from the first between the eggs of wild 

 trout and those from domesticated trout. The wild trout eggs show 

 that they are much stronger. The results, as they are carried through 

 the season, show in their favor. It seemed to me that the same dis- 

 tinction could be noticed between the lots from different hatcheries, 

 and that it was all in favor of the young trout; that is, the eggs of the 

 young trout, although they are often smaller, looked better from the 

 first, and did better up through the period of incubation, and the fry 

 did better; they were more vigorous and there was less loss. I have 

 noticed the same thing with our domesticated rainbow trout: the 

 young fish give the better quality of eggs — somewhat smaller but more 

 vigorous. It seems to me that Mr. Atkins' experiments with Atlantic 

 salmon, with which I was familiar for a good many years, argue in 

 the same direction. He took young Atlantic salmon and confined 

 them in ponds, reared them and bred them for several generations one 

 after another, and the vitality continually ran down. Now that may 

 all be a question of environment, or it may be a question of food, but 

 it seems to me it is probably a question of food, as we cannot give 

 trout or salmon, or even our bass, their natural food. I should vote 

 therefore in favor of the young breeders. 



Mr. Hurlbut : I wish to state here the experiment I made two years 

 ago. I wanted to see how many fry I could get from a given lot of 

 eggs. I used the early males. I chose 10,000 eggs, took care of them, 

 and did not lose one per cent in hatching. 



I asked Mr. Clark at one time if he could tell me what was the cause 

 of the blue sac. There was not a blue sac among my fry, neither was 

 there a crooked fry. I will tell you how I did it. I took the eggs with- 

 out forcing them at all; and was very careful to take only just those 

 few. I put them on the screen and took care of them myself; and I 

 raised them and did not lose 5 per cent out of those 10,000, till they 

 were a year old. That is an experience I have had in raising trout. 

 While I say of the young trout you may get their eggs and may have 

 success with the fry, and it may be all right for your wild stream, it 

 will not do for the commercial man to follow up. I have a neighbor 

 who has been trying to put two year old trout on the market as 

 "thirds ;" but they do not come up "thirds." He has followed this one 

 year. That is my experience in the trout business. It is not from what 

 1 have heard, but my actual experience in what I have done. 



President: If anyone will guarantee us all the eggs we need in the 

 next twenty years at fifty cents a thousand, I will recommend to our 

 board that we turn loose every trout tomorrow morning, for that is 

 cheaper than we can produce them until our production is increased to 

 10,000,000 annually. The reason that commercial dealers have an ad- 

 vantage over the State is that they are producing trout for market, and 

 what they receive for eggs is largely velvet. We have to breed fish, 

 and feed and care for them the same as the commercial man does, but 

 we derive no revenue from them. All we get is their eggs. 



