486 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



to build a house, dig a canal, etc. All of our streams have a narrow 

 valley of muck, usually from ten to twenty rods wide. This muck 

 makes excellent manure with the addition of a little lime, ashes, etc. 

 The idea that ponds are necessary for raising trout is erroneous. Ponds 

 are only necessary for Clubs or gentlemen of pleasure. Ponds make 

 the water too warm in summer and too cold in winter, beside the risk 

 of the breaking of dams and losing your trout. They breed some 

 natural food, but that is no object in this country, where food is so 

 cheap. Dig the canals deep, put in the screens, let the current run 

 as rapidly as possible ; with no head of water there can be no breaks. 

 I came to Long Island in August, 1860, to recuperate ; and by the 

 way, strange as it may seem, I think this just as good a place to emi- 

 grate to, even to make money in, as the west or south. As to health, 

 it certainly is far ahead of any malarious country ; in fact, I believe 

 the blessings of God are very evenly distributed over this sin-stricken 

 land, and more depends on the man about succeeding in any business 

 than the place he selects. I spent five years in the cranberry business, 

 in which I succeeded very well, making about $1,000 a year. I next 

 bought some 200 acres near the terminus of the South Side railroad. 

 I first built a dam and raised a pond of some four acres, seven feet 

 water. I then placed in my upper flume, which is twelve feet long 

 by four feet wide, boxes suspended six inches below the surface of the 

 water, filled with gravel. In this flume I placed seventy-five adult 

 trout. They spawned in the boxes and began to hatch in February. 

 From this beginning I started my pond, so that in three years I was 

 offered $1,000 a year by a gentleman who wanted to get up a Club 

 at that time. The next fall I made a spawning race, 400 feet long, 

 two feet wide, of boards. In this race I placed galvanized wire screens, 

 one-fourth inch mesh. I wished to try the experiment of extending 

 the race and letting the eggs lay and hatch natural. My first and 

 great mistake was in supposing that the eggs should go through the 

 screens, which were two inches above the bottom of the race. I had 

 about two or three inches of coarse gravel on the screens at first, 

 and after the trout ran up and filled the screens, I found there was a 

 muddy sediment settled at the bottom. Eventually I found I 

 hatched only about 9,000 or 10,000. These were where the 

 gravel was heaped up by the trout, and the eggs never went through 

 the screen at all. So I concluded that the space under the 

 screens should be at least four or five inches, and the gravel 

 on the screens should be at least five or six inches thick ; then with 

 one-fourth inch muck, very few if any spawn would go through, 



