12 



plau of operation is similar to that of other breeders of trout. Having 

 caught a number of trout, male and female, at the season when they 

 commence to go up stream, the}^ are kept in a small trap or pound until 



 the females are found to be read}' to deposit their eggs. 'J his can be 

 readily told by an examination of the fish. The first operation is to pro- 

 cure a tin pan or other shallow vessel of water, a male trout is then 

 taken from the pound and his belly placed in the water in the pan, a 

 gentle pressure of the hand will express a few drops of the milt; he is 



' then returned to the pound; a female trout is then taken, and hy the 

 same process her eggs are also expressed into the same pan. The water 

 in the pan is then gently stirred so as to insure all the eggs coming in 

 contact with the milt. In a few minutes the water containing the milt 

 is washed away and replaced by pure water. These impregnated eggs 

 are then placed in the hatching boxes, which are a series of shallow 

 wooden boxes nearlj- filled with tine gravel, over which a stream of pure 

 cool water is slowly but constantly passing. A trout yields from five 

 hundred to four thousand eggs, depending upon its size and age. A 

 salmon yields an average of a thousand eggs to each pound of its weight. 

 The eggs are spread upon the gravel, and after the water has continu- 

 ously passed over them for from forty to eighty diiys, depending upon 

 its temperature, the young trout make their appearance. The}' require 

 no food for the first thirty days, the yolk sack of the egg, which is 

 attached to them, alfording nourishment during this period. After this, 

 the 3Iessrs. Comer feed them on finel}' chopped liver until they are sufifi- 

 ciently large to be turned into the ponds, Avhere they are fed upon any 

 kind of coarse meat or fish, finely chopped. Trout will live and thrive 

 in water of a temperature between forty and sixty-five degrees. This 

 is about the only question to be settled b}' persons who desire to stock 

 streams with trout. If the water in summer does not get warmer 

 than sixty-five degrees, the experiment may be tried with every proba- 

 bility of success. The qualit}' of the water does not seem to be material. 

 They live and thrive in water that is impregnated with minerals, and in 

 salt water, and in artesian Avell water, provided only the temperature is 

 not too warm. Persons vfho live near small lakes and streams, now 

 without fish, and containing water of the proper temperature, could, at 

 trifling exjaeuse and care, provide themselves with a constant suj^ply of 

 delicious and healthy food b}^ hatching a fevv^ eggs, or by turning in a 

 few of the young fish. Both eggs and young fish are readily transported 

 almost any distance. Salmon eggs have been taken from Scotland to 

 Australia and hatched, and the Acclimatization Society of San Francisco 

 has successfully imported the eggs of the Eastern brook trout and 

 hatched them in this State. It has been estimated that an acre of water 

 can be made to yield as much food as four acres of average land. 



SHAD. 



Your Commissioners made arrangements with J\Ir. Seth Green, the 

 noted pisciculturist of Eochester, ISevv^ York, for the importation of a 

 lot of young shad to be turned into the Sacramento Eiver. No shad 

 projier (alosa prcestabilis) are found in the rivers of the Pacific Coast, 

 while there are found several varieties of the same family, such 

 as herrings, anchovies, and sardines. As shad readily enter rivers 

 while muddy from the spring freshets, and spawn in water of a tem- 

 perature as high as sixty five degrees, there was reason to hope that if 

 the shad could be brought here alive and turned into the river they 



