76 PRACTICAL TROUT CULTURE. 



CHAPTER VL 



ARTIFICIAL IMPREGNATION. 



As stated in the last chapter, we still hold, for 

 reasons there mentioned, to artificial impregnation, 

 believing that in our hands, at least, that a larger 

 percentage of spawn can be properly and thor- 

 oughly impregnated than by any race, however 

 ingeniously contrived. It is about the first of 

 November that female fishes make their first ap- 

 pearance in our race.* Males have appeared some 

 weeks earlier, but the average of several seasons 

 fixes November 1 as the period at which the 

 females ready to spawn first appear. The fishes 

 in this condition are technically called ripe ; and a 

 singular change has taken place in the form and 

 color since the previous spring. The females, in- 

 stead of the bright colors in which they formerly 

 appeared, have become sombre in hue, putting on, 

 as one author has expressed it, a grave and ma- 

 tronly attire, the abdomen being greatly distended 



* To prevent misunderstanding we would mention that the word 

 " race," as used by us, means simply the one with gravel-covered 

 bottom. If screened races are intended, the words Collins or Ains- 

 worth will be used. 



