Trout Breeding. 105 



PUTTING OUT THE BABIES. 



In May the little fish should be put out in the sun- 

 light and fed there. My rearing ponds were of yellow 

 pine plank, 250 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep, 

 with water 2 feet deep, made of 2-inch plank on sides 

 and i -inch on bottom, nailed to outside frames. This 

 stretch was divided into six compartments by double 

 screens of No. 8 wire-cloth, 18 inches apart, with a 

 dam between the screens that was i inch higher than 

 the pool below. If fish passed one screen they might 

 be dipped out before passing the next one, for the little 

 fellows will get through a crack if there is one. The 

 screens were to prevent crowding in any part of the 

 long rearing pond and to facilitate feeding. The fish 

 in the upper pool fared best, for in addition to liver 

 they had the first pick of the small crustaceans which 

 came in from the reservoir. 



As the flow through these pools was about 600 gal- 

 lons per minute, it was too strong for the little fellows 

 all the time, and in a straight-away run a tired trout 

 would be washed against the lower screen and die 

 there. To prevent this there was a series of obstruc- 

 tions put in, which created eddies of rest for the weary. 

 These were either alternate projections from the sides, 

 as in some fishways,' or with dams clear across, but 

 with the top two inches below the surface ; four inches 

 below this was a dam extending from above the surface 

 to six inches below it. This arrangement caused the 

 water to flow up from the bottom, over the dam and 

 to the bottom again, leaving comparatively still water 

 in the upper part, and after stemming the strong bot- 

 tom current for a while a fish could find rest above ; it 



