1 8 HOME FISHING AND HOME WATERS. 



and I have continued to employ this process in all my 

 operations ever since. 



After the spawn has been taken and vitalized as 

 above described, it is allowed to stand in the pans 

 for a certain length of time, usually from twenty to 

 thirty minutes ; the eggs are then rinsed off and are 

 placed in the hatching troughs or other hatching 

 apparatus. Here they are allowed to remain until 

 they hatch, which, as I have explained in the last 

 chapter, varies in length of time with different varie- 

 ties of fish, some requiring a longer and some a 

 shorter period. When the eggs are in the hatching 

 apparatus, they are directly under the fish culturist's 

 eye. He watches over them daily with almost as 

 much care as a mother does her child, to see that 

 they are receiving the proper circulation which they 

 must have in order to hatch, and although precau- 

 tions are taken to exclude their enemies, they are 

 liable to get among the spawn and destroy the 

 eggs. In my early experience I noticed the eggs 

 dying in certain parts of my hatching troughs, and 

 also observed that some were missing. I was not 

 long in discovering that rats were the cause of the 

 trouble, and a few steel traps judiciously set, soon 

 disposed of them. I mention this to show that 

 enemies which we would least suspect, have to be 

 discovered and guarded against. On one occasion I 

 took the shells of three hundred eggs from the 

 stomach of one rat. While the eggs are in the pro- 

 cess of hatching, they must be looked over and 

 examined every day, and if any dead ones are dis- 

 covered, they must be immediately removed. The 

 reason for this is that after an egg has been dead 



