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THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



bend. It is very easily made by bending a wire in the desired shape, and twisting the two 

 ends together for a handle. Thin gauze of some kind, like bobinet, should be spread over the 

 wire so tightly that the middle of the net shall hang only a half inch below the level. An 

 iron spoon, well tinned or silvered, is used to remove the eggs. Some six-quart tin milk-pans 

 will be necessary, for a variety of purposes. Eggs may be counted most easily by measuring 

 them. For this purpose take any small glass, such as a very small tumbler, for instance, 

 count out 500 or a 1,000 eggs, and with a file make a mark upon the glass as high as they 

 reach, and the measure is always to your hand. 



A watering pot with a fine rose spout is used to wash sediment from the eggs on the 

 seives, and a broom of wings is used to brush the screens of wire. 



Improving Streams. Where a person has a small stream on his place which is 

 adapted for trout, but is not large enough to accommodate many, or grow them to a good 

 size, it can, at very small expense, be made a considerable source of pleasure and profit. All 

 that has to be done is, to dig small ponds or long, narrow holes, say three or four rods long, 

 and five feet deep, and throw some logs or brush in them. If possible, lay the logs crosswise 

 near the bottom, in order to have the water work under them and make a clean &quot; scour.&quot; 



ARTIFICIAL SPAWNING BEDS. 



Then all that has to be done is to place some trout fry in the brook above the ponds. As 

 the fish grow they will settle down into the ponds where they can find shelter and safety, and 

 whence they can be taken with a hook and line whenever they are wanted; the danger of 

 fouling around the brushwood being an additional excitement to the angler. The fish need 

 not be fed, as food sufficient will accumulate upon the logs and brush. 



Spawning Season Salmon and Trout. The salmon family of the Atlantic 

 States, including the eastern salmon, the salmon trout, the brook trout, the whitefish, and the 

 lake herring, spawn in the autumn and fore part of winter. The grayling spawns in March 

 and April, the California salmon in summer, commencing the latter part of August, and the 

 California mountain trout in spring, beginning with the middle of March. Trout commence 

 to spawn about October. The colder the climate is, the sooner they will spawn. In Caledo 

 nia Creek the trout lay their first eggs about the 12th of October; the water standing then 

 at about forty-eight degrees. In the preserves, where the temperature at that time is a few 

 degrees higher, they begin to spawn about the 1st of November, and cease about the 1st of 

 March. The length of the spawning season depends upon the equality of the temperature of 

 the water. In streams where the temperature does not vary much, winter or summer, the 



