94 AMERICAN 



then another of spawn, till the box is full. Put on a tin cover firmly, 

 and pack the box with sawdust in another and considerably larger 

 one. If kept cool the spawn will be good for at least fifty days, and 

 it has been thus preserved for eighty-five days. The best tempera- 

 ture is about 50. At over 65 eggs suffer severely. The minimum 

 time for hatching is fifty days, the maximum one hundred and fifty 

 days. Then the little troutling lies feebly on its side, and for forty- 

 five days subsists entirely on the gradually absorbed yolk-sac, which 

 in nature seems to serve the double end of food and of an anchor 

 to hold it down among the gravel. At the end of that period the 

 little fish is free, and needs feeding. Now the water should be 

 backed up several inches deep in the troughs, and the fish fed twice 

 a day with raw beef liver cut as fine as jelly and bruised with water, 

 and very slowly given to them, so that it may be eaten up clean. 



Water is to be had in plenty, but food is the turning point of pro- 

 fit or no profit in fish breeding. The little ones will get enough food 

 in a proper pond or brook if simply left to themselves ; but to grow 

 the larger fish rapidly, extra food in large quantities will be required. 

 The way to get this is the way of Comacchio : to breed one fish to 

 feed another ; and to let the first gain its own living from insects or 

 water-plants. Near the sea-coast vast quantities of little fish may 

 be had for the catching ; among which may be named the " friars" 

 (fundulus) that swarm in salt water ditches and creeks. These 

 scalded and given to trout produce a rapid growth, some getting to 

 half a pound and more in a year. There seems no reason why every 

 inland fish-breeding establishment should not hatch artificially large 

 quantities of small fish entirely as food for the more valuable trout. 



TROUT BREEDING, 



A trout-breeding establishment should have five artificial ponds of 

 an acre each, and four feet deep. These would hold 1,000,000 of 

 marketable fish. It should have two or three natural ponds, of a 

 dozen or twenty acres each, where fish could be bred wherewith to 

 feed the trout ; and finally, it should have pools for the breeding 

 fish, and hatching-houses in proportion to the quantity to be raised. 



BREEDING SALMON, 



Salmon for breeding should be treated like trout. They should 

 be taken in nets (from a late run if possible,) and confined in a run- 

 ning stream of some depth, and of a proper bottom, with shady banks, 

 and with hiding-places. From the stream should lead gravelly, 

 covered trenches, suitable for spawning beds, into which the pairs 

 of salmon would go in their season, and whence they could be taken 

 for breeding. The only difference would be that, whereas the trout 

 are kept from year to year, the salmon must be returned to the river 

 in order that that might go to the sea. Seth Green, who sat two 

 days in a tree to watch the salmon spawn, corroborates the account 



