66 Modern Fishculiure in Fresh and Salt Water. 



treatment, and if the adult cannot stand it, how can the 

 little bit of life which is trying to assert itself in the 

 egg which is only half an hour old stand it? Look to 

 the temperatures of air and water when taking trout 

 eggs. 



The taking and impregnating of eggs is the most 

 delicate and important part of fishculture. No man 

 can become an expert by reading this or any other 

 book. There are things that he must get by experience. 

 I can tell him in words how to distinguish and strip a 

 ripe trout, as far as words will go, but I realize that 

 the directions are much like those books whose titles 

 are, "The Violin Without a Master," and "The Art of 

 Boxing," etc. After reading such works there is much 

 to learn. 



I believe that a novice may follow my instructions 

 and, after noting his failures from year to year, he will 

 get on the right track ; but, if he can afford it, it will 

 be years to his credit if he employs a competent fish- 

 culturist, and they are now to be had from the hatch- 

 eries of many States. I have taken eggs from the same 

 trout many years without injury to her. A trout can 

 retain its eggs if its stomach is empty, and they some- 

 times sulk as a cow does when being milked, but a full 

 belly causes her to be glad to be rid of her burden. 



SPAWN FROM WILD TROUT. 



Brook trout usually run up into swift, shallow, grav- 

 elly streams to spawn, if thore are such streams acces- 

 sible to them. In Buck Pond, near Meacham Lake, 

 Franklin County, New York, there is no inlet stream, 

 and the trout spawn about the springs in the bottom. 



