96 American Fisheries Society. 



to do with the water becoming infected. At Manchester we get very little 

 surface water, if any, in the spring; but it might be surface water that 

 seeps down through the soil and eventually enters the spring and flows out. 



Dr. Moore : There is some seepage or ground water entering the spring 

 at this hatchery. 



Mr. Leach : That condition may have been different at Manchestei 

 this last year, and it might explain why they did not have any loss when 

 in the previous two years there was a loss. 



Mr. Titcxjmb: I had something to do with this hatchery for a number 

 of years. Undoubtedly they have had this same trouble for a great many 

 years, varying of course in severity; some years the loss would be very 

 much larger than others. This flume that Dr. Moore refers to was put in 

 because I had a great prejudice against carrying water underground to 

 hatcheries ; I will never put a pipe underground when I can conduct the 

 water on the surface. The idea of the flume is to get the water into the 

 air and thus secure more oxygen. In the two seasons after that flume was 

 introduced we had very remarkable results in the production of fingerling 

 trout at this hatchery. 



Mr. Hayford: I might add one thing more in regard to the question 

 Mr. Leach has asked. With us, it varies from the time the fish have been 

 feeding from two to eight weeks. We have very little trouble after the 

 middle of June. Generally we have been able to control the epidemic by 

 changing the water and food supply. Our experience at Hackettstown has 

 taught us that the fresher our food supply the better success we have. 

 In the past we have fed a great deal of frozen butterfish. This year wc 

 have fed very little of it, depending largely on sheep plucks and beef livers 

 with a liberal amount of natural insect food given at least once a week to 

 the brown and brook trout; the result has been beyond expectations. 



Mr. Leach : I think Mr. Hayford's point is a good one — that the food 

 of the fish probably has much to do with it. I think that overcrowding 

 also has its effect. What size hatching trough do you use, Mr. Hayford? 



Mr. Hayford: We have all sizes, but prefer those 12 feet long, 15 

 inches wide and 9 inches deep, in buildings, and as many larger ones as we 

 have room to raise fish up to 8 to 10 inches long. The New Jersey Com- 

 mission does not believe in planting fish under two inches. We could hatch 

 20,000,000, but as we do not plant fry we only hatch four to six million. 

 We put the fish into ponds at all sizes, from fry to two and one-half inches. 

 In one pond there will be 10,000 fish without any trouble; in another, with 

 the same water and the same conditions generally, we will have all kinds of 

 trouble. We are much interested in this food question. Where we get 

 perfectly fresh sheep plucks, of light color, which every practical fish 

 culturist recognizes as an indication of their fitness, we have no trouble. 



Mr. Leach: You think the trouble is brought about more by the food 

 than by overcrowding? 



Mr. Hayford: After running them in different numbers from 1,00ft 

 up to 10,000, and often having more trouble with the 1,000 than with the 

 10,000, I am satisfied that overcrowding has very little to do with it. I made 



