Trout Breeding. 49 



dow glass laid in white lead, and there were trout eggs 

 on gravel laid on the glass. The swelling of the trough 

 left patches of bare pine and there the jelly asserted 

 itself. I tried it with the same result, and lost many 

 eggs. 



Mr. Livingston Stone obtained a patent for a trough 

 of charred wood, June 20, 1871. This solved the prob- 

 lem, for fungus will not grow on charcoal, and in an 

 emergency, in January, 1882 when Prof. Baird sent me 

 a lot of salmon eggs to hatch for the Hudson, and I 

 hustled around and got Thomas Chapham's disused 

 hatchery at Roslyn, Long Island I had a lot of cheap 

 troughs made and the weather was too cold for the tar 

 to dry and started in. The eggs were far advanced and 

 began to hatch in the spring water, which was warmer 

 than the air; for I had kept the eggs in the packages 

 just above the freezing point. The first lot showed the 

 disease which we know as ''blue-belly/' and I saw that 

 the wood was too raw. I took trough after trough, dried 

 them, filled them with straw and coal tar, set them on 

 end to make a chimney and charred them deeply. It 

 was a success ; the remaining salmon did well, but the 

 charcoal was dirty to the hands. 



A year or more later I read somewhere of the use of 

 coal tar for troughs and tried it. It was perfect, but 

 the name of the man who suggested it is not known to 

 me. I think he was a Frenchman. Of course, Seth 

 Green claimed to know all about it, for Seth had a way 

 of discounting all discoveries, as he did in the case of 

 dry impregnation, which we will come to later. 



The coal tar should be thoroughly dried before water 

 touches it, for it will not harden under water, nor over 

 paint nor white lead. With three thin coats there will 

 be no more flavor of tar to the water in the trough than 



