44 



is much more comfortable to work in. A stove may be 

 put in it and a fire started occasionally for warming one's 

 fingers, but it is not needed for hatching purposes, as 

 spring water in these latitudes is warm enough. The 

 house may be constructed of rough boards,or as expensive- 

 ly as you choose, butcare should be taken to have a water- 

 tight roof, as drops of water leaking through and falling 

 into the troughs will kill the eggs underneath. Its size 

 must be regulated by the number and extent of the 

 troughs. 



The windows in a hatching house should be few in 

 number and provided with curtains or shutters, as the 

 sun shining upon the spawn will kill it. Not that a few 

 minutes exposure to the rays of the sun will hurt the 

 eggs, but a few hours exposure certainly will. Perhaps it 

 would be well to have the windows, if possible, made on 

 the north side of the hatching house, into which the sun 

 will not shine in the winter season. Keep the hatching 

 house clean. In fact cleanliness is one of the cardinal vir- 

 tues to the trout raiser. He should have a clean house, 

 should work with clean hands, and have all his pans, 

 spoons and utensils of every sort free from grease and dirt. 



TROUGHS. These should be made of seasoned timber, 

 one and a half inches thick. They should be six inches 

 deep and about fifteen inches wide, inside measurement. 

 It would be better, perhaps, if the troughs were eight or 

 nine inches deep, because then the water could be raised 

 higher over the the young trout after the> are hatched out. 

 The difficulty in making them so deep is that when the 

 sides of the trough are made so wide they are apt to warp 

 or stretch apart at the top, and must be stayed in some 

 way; for instance, by strips nailed across. But the cleaner 

 the trough is of all strips, elbows or grooves the better. 

 The troughs are divided into squares or nests by cross 



