Other Trouts and the Salmons. 169 



CHAPTER XV. 



HYBRID FISH. 



All the salmonidse readily hybridize. As an experi- 

 ment in the study of animal life it was worth while to 

 try this, but in ordinary fishculture it is a very bad 

 practice, for no possible good comes from it in the cul- 

 ture of trout. This was such a fad at the New York 

 State hatchery at Caledonia that when the present State 

 Fish, Game and Forest Commission took charge of the 

 work they found but few pure bred trout of any kind 

 in the ponds. For years bastard fish had been bred in- 

 discriminately at that station and sent out into the 

 streams. The new Commission wisely stopped this 

 work and stocked up with pure bred fish. No such 

 thing was found at Cold Spring Harbor when I left it, 

 for I would not have a bastard fish ; I hate the name, 

 even if softened to "hybrid." 



At Mr. Blackford's "trout openings" I have seen 

 trout from Caledonia marked "One-sixteenth brook 

 trout, nine-sixteenths lake trout and three-eighths sal- 

 mon." Fishculturists who know how difficult it is to 

 keep young trout from being mixed during the first 

 year used to smile at the very specific amount of each 

 kind of blood, which involved some bookkeeping for 

 several years. 



SHAD AND ALEWIFE. 



I have hybridized the shad and the river herring, ale- 

 wives, in great numbers, but there was a valid reason 



