562 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PROPAGATION OF BROOK TROUT. 



Mr. Editor : — I notice in the Farmer of 

 Oct. 22d that a correspondent describes his fa- 

 cilities for fish culture, and inquires, "What 

 kind would be most suitable, and in what man- 

 ner would it be best to confine them ?" In your 

 reply you refer him to me for information. I am 

 happy to respond to any question relating to 

 the propagation of the common brook trout, (hav- 

 ing never investigated the habits of any other 

 species,) if I have any information which the 

 public does not already possess. Before refer- 

 ring to my own personal experience and obser- 

 vation on the subject, I will reply to Mr. Howes, 

 by saying, that if he has constructed a pond 

 where he can maintain a living stream through 

 it of the dimensions stated, it is perhaps the best 

 natural arrangement that can be procured for the 

 common brook trout, providing he can keep out 

 other kinds of fish. If the stream running into 

 the pond is provided with a gravelly bottom, it 

 is perfectly in keeping with the habits of the 

 brood trout to ascend the rivulet during the 

 month of October, deposit their eggs, cover them 

 up, and descend to the deepest part of the pond 

 for their winter quarters about the last of No- 

 vember. If Mr. Howes can now add a fixture 

 whereby he can prevent the "young fry" return- 

 ing to the pond too soon, his arrangement will 

 be nearly complete. 



I have but one year's experience in my "trout 

 dissipation," as it is sometimes called, but this 

 little experience has proved a complete triumph 

 in some respects, but in others a partial failure. 

 I have proved (to myself, at least,) that the pa- 

 rent trout will readily domesticate and familiar- 

 ize themselves to artificial arrangements, so as 

 to deposit and cover up their eggs, and leave 

 them to hatch out after the natural process, with- 

 out limit or failure. To my mind, this is an in- 

 teresting consideration, inasmuch as it relieves 

 us from all the difficult and nice labor of artifi- 

 cial propagation. 



Having discovered this, it only remains to se- 

 cure the young fish from being destroyed by the 

 older, who feed upon them. To do this effectu- 

 ally, several pools or ponds must be provided, 

 so as to classify and preserve them ; an object 

 not often obtained without considerable expense. 

 With such provisions as I have intimated, there 

 is manifestly no limit to the natural production 

 of the trout. 



In my eff"orts to hatch them artificially, I did 

 not succeed, and I think it was owing wholly to 

 the fact that I did not follow the teachings of 

 the female trout, and cover up the eggs with 

 gravel. Following the directions of writers who 

 have published on the subject, I found no diffi- 

 culty in compressing both the male and female, 

 and procuring thereby the materials necessary 

 for the artificial propagation ; and for about one 

 month every appearance corresponded to results 

 stated in published accounts. But eventually, 

 they all turned white, which was evidence that 

 they had lost vitality. This is one of the fail- 

 ures alluded to above. The other was this : The 

 connection between the spawning ground and 

 the home of the brood fish was not sufficiently 

 secured by wire screening, so as to prevent the 



young brood getting in with the parent fish, and 

 before I was aware of it, schools of them were 

 there, and becoming less every day, in conse- 

 quence of the voracious habits of the older fish; 

 under these circumstances, and having no facili- 

 ties for separating them, the result was, that when 

 I drew off' the pond to transfer the brood trout 

 to the spawing bed this fall, I found only about 

 thirty of last winter's hatching. These varied 

 from three to five inches in lengih, and when first 

 discovered about the first of last April, they were 

 from one-half to three-fourths inch. As I hav 

 watched the movements and propensities of the 

 trout, I am convinced that the destruction of the 

 younger by the older is immense, when not pre- 

 vented by artificial arrangements. 



As the result of close observation, I have come 

 to the conclusion that the young associate with 

 the old, indiscriminately, until they find that in- 

 stead of natural protectors their parents are nat- 

 ural enemies. They then proceed forthwith to 

 shallow water, or hiding places, where the older 

 cannot follow, and thus a few, comparatively, are 

 preserved. Charles Humphrey. 



Lancaster, Mass., wVou. 1, 1859. 



For t?ie New England Farmer. 



HO\'5r TO RECKON THE COST OF FARM 

 PRODUCTS. 



Mr. Editor : — One of the great reasons why 

 farmers do not succeed any better in their 

 business, is that they do not stop to figure — they 

 are negligent in this particular, and seldom, if 

 ever, know the precise cost of a single article 

 they produce. They work hard and long, taxing 

 their physical powers to the utmost, and neglect- 

 ing the mental, till they have been persuaded to 

 believe that it is all right that they should pro- 

 duce for others to consume, without adequate re- 

 compense to themselves. 



Now, what I want to see is this : — I want to 

 see every farmer who produces any article to sell, 

 know exactly what it costs — no guess-work 

 about it ; but to know, that's the point. I pre- 

 sume no one doubts but that everything we pro- 

 duce has a positive, definite cost, for whether we 

 know it or not, such is the fact ; then why de- 

 ceive ourselves in the matter ? I know it is 

 thought to be very difllicult to ascertain the pre- 

 cise cost of farm products ; but if it is difficult it 

 is not impossible. Then let us try to systema- 

 tize the business to such a degree as to become 

 familiar with it, and in time it will become so 

 easy that we should be almost ashamed not to 

 know all the facts in the matter. How long 

 would a merchant or manufacturer stand if they 

 did not know the cost of their goods. Take, for 

 instance, a pair of fine gaiter boots. How is the 

 cost of them to be reckoned ? The material of 

 which they are composed is taken from every 

 quarter of the globe; many islands of the ocean 

 are bi'ought into requisition to produce them. The 

 French, the English, the Italian and the shrewd 

 Yankee, have all had a finger in the matter ; also 

 various machinery, as well as busy hands, have 

 been brought into requisition by many different 

 people, and yet any manufacturer would be 

 ashamed not to know, within one cent, the cost 

 of every pair he makes. 



