American fislicrlcs Society 75 



apparently as healthy as any fish yon ever saw. However, when we try 

 to keep them after that time they die off rapidly, probably from the 

 same disease — tlie Barfcrihin tnittac — that Mr. Marsh first discovered 

 at North ville some 8 or 10 yoars ago. We have liad it there ever since, 

 thongh we thought at une time we were rid I'f it. The disease has 

 affected lish kept in a large wild nr natural pond as well as those in 

 cement ponds. Mr. Marsh made a careful study of the sul)ject at tiie 

 time, hut has since been working on other matters. This is work for 

 the scii'Utist, as ilie lish cullurist already has too many duties, and besides 

 usually lacks special training for such work. 



Mk. W. E. Meehan : What is the general appearance of the disease, 

 and how do the fish act? 



Mr. Ci..\kk: The trout ai>pear to be all right, when, without any 

 warning (U- apparent cause, they connnence working down to the lower 

 end of the pond, where they may go against the screen or may not. 

 Hut the_\- dart .about in apparent distress and linally die and sink to the 

 bottom. .Sometimes but not always a blotch will l)e seen on them. 



1 think .Mr. Marsh states in his paper that he found in the soil at 

 .Xorthville something on the order of the lockjaw germ, the tetanus 

 l)acillus. Of course, the lockjaw germ is in the ground all the time; at 

 least, so I understand. Mr. Marsh thinks that the Bacterium truttcB is 

 similarly in the soil at Xorthville and through it and the action of the 

 water attacks the Jish. There seems to be no difference whether the 

 lish are in the head pond where spring water first enters, or farther 

 down in ,a series of ponds. .\t .\orth\ille the disease has never attacked 

 anything 1>ut the brook tr<iut. 



Mk. W. \\. Meeii.\n: The remarks of Mr. Cbark are very interesting. 

 We had trouble in one <if our hatcheries at l!ellefonte for three succes- 

 sive years, and it was very similar to what .Mr. Clark descriljes. We 

 had about ten or a do/en ])on(ls b^-ated just outside of the hatching 

 house. They were Imilt of concrete— sides and bottoms— so located that 

 only about a foot of water could be carrietl. In some of the ponds the 

 young fish up to Xo. 2 fingerlings did lirst rate, but in others soon after 

 reaching that size they began to die off very rapidly, the action being 

 just about as Mr. Clark describes. They would move around sometimes 

 sluggishly, again a little more rapidly, then toward the outlet of the 

 pond, and sometimes towards the surface, then they would turn over 

 and die. On one occasion we lost 9l),tH)(l in a little while. We tried a 

 munber of remedies. We covered the Ix.tlom of the ponds with gravel, 

 some of them to a depth of six inches. We kei)t them thoroughly cleaned, 

 scrubbed the sides, salted them and tried every method we could. In 

 some instances the lish would do well in certain ponds, but nothing 

 eould be tlone to save the lish in two of the ponds. When we gave up 

 using these ponds and transferred the lish to jjonds having concreted 

 sides, gravel bottom and two and a half feet of water, we had no more 

 trouble, b'or two years we ha\ e had a low death rate among the finger- 

 lings in these deeper ponds. We have occasionally tested the other 

 ponds, but the same trouble has always developed. .\ curious feature 



