136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



There are a few animals against which you must guard. 

 Wherever muskrats are common, you should not build artificial 

 breeding ponds, or you should at least begin bj exterminating 

 them, so that the eggs of your breeding fish shall not be de- 

 stroyed. Muskrats are very large feeders, and they relish par- 

 ticularly the eggs of fishes, so that they are one of the most 

 dreaded inmates of our fish ponds. Frogs, also, must be 

 hunted down, if you would be successful in fish breeding. 

 These are the thorns and thistles of our field, and we must 

 weed them out, if we would have a clean field and make a good 

 crop. All these particulars will be suggested by the different 

 localities. 



Then another point. The same water can be used over and 

 over again. Because your neighbor has a successful pond upon 

 his farm, do not think you cannot have one equally successful, 

 a few rods lower down. That same water will turn your fish 

 mill just as the water power will turn your grist or saw mill, 

 and that of your neighbor above or below. Therefore, there is 

 no end to the extent to which you can introduce this artificial 

 breeding of fish. 



I think these are the most general principles upon which you 

 may establish fish breeding. The manner in which this is best 

 to be done will depend upon the kind of fish you propose breed- 

 ing, upon the exposure of your sheet of water, upon your 

 surroundings, upon your opportunities, and it would be tedious 

 were I to attempt to describe more fully these particulars. 

 There are already a number of publications in which the results 

 of the efforts thus far made are described, and I would recom- 

 mend to all those who are interested in the subject the reports 

 of the State Commissioners on Fisheries, written by Col. Theo- 

 dore Lyman, in which there is a vast amount of valuable infor- 

 mation on that subject. 



Now, let me say a few words concerning the growth of the 

 fish themselves, and some of the circumstances which accom- 

 pany their growth. 



The first condition for successful breeding is to secure ripe 

 eggs, and they are known to be ripe when, on taking the fish 

 out of the water, it lets the eggs go in a stream. Taking such 

 eggs, you are sure to have them in the condition favorable for 

 breeding. They ought to be placed at once in localities where 



