8o Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water, 



trough may be placed by making a dam with a board, 

 a foot or more in height, and, tapping it with a half- 

 inch pipe, let it run into the upper end of the trough, 

 which should be slightly raised, so that there will be a 

 small ripple over the strips, but not current enough to 

 carry away the eggs when placed upon the gravel. 



If this trough is in a spring house, or a hatching 

 house is built, where a settling reservoir can be used, it 

 will be found a great help in keeping the eggs free from 

 sediment which will collect and, partly covering the 

 egg, interfere with its vitality by depriving it of its 

 power of absorbing oxygen from the water in a man- 

 ner analogous to breathing. The trough being in readi- 

 ness and the eggs received, fill the trough by a dam at 

 lower end and place the boxes in the trough before 

 opening until they have acquired its temperature, then 

 take a pan of water, remove the eggs and rinse them 

 free from any dirt in the moss, pick out the few dead 

 ones, which you will at once recognize by their milky 

 whiteness, dip the edge of the pan under water and 

 let the eggs drop on the gravel to be afterward dis- 

 tributed with the wing feather of a fowl. Ever re- 

 member these vital rules : never let the sun shine upon 

 the eggs, never pour them through the air to strike the 

 surface of the water (although they may fall any dis- 

 tance under water) and never expose them to sudden 

 changes of temperature. 



Having placed the eggs on the gravel, all that is now 

 required is a daily inspection to see that the water is 

 running steadily, and to remove such eggs as may die 

 from time to time, to prevent them from decay and 

 growing a woolly fungus which is very deadly. They 

 should also be feathered over as often as any sign of a 

 deposit of sediment is observed, beginning at the head 



