NOTES ON STURGEON CULTURE IN VERMONT. 
E. N. CARTER. 
The spawning season of the sturgeon in the Missisquoi, La- 
moille and Winooski rivers—all Vermont tributaries to Lake 
Champlain—is from the first of May to the middle of June, at 
least the main run of these fish appear in the above mentioned 
rivers between these dates. In his report for 1901, Mr. Living- 
ston Stone, referring to the sturgeon of this lake, says: ‘They 
are doubtless spawning somewhere all summer,” and this is also 
the opinion of many of the Champlain fishermen, who have 
stated to me that late in the fall they have caught female stur- 
geon from which the eggs flowed as freely as they do in mid- 
summer and earlier. So far as the propagation of this fish is 
concerned, however, I think that the above dates may be consid- 
ered as marking the time limits of their spawning period. 
Their first appearance in the rivers is so sudden, and their 
stay on the spawning beds so short—three or four days, only, 
being apparently sufficient for the deposit of their eggs—that 
every preparation to handle them must be made in due season. 

The past spring it was decided that this work—after a lapse 
of three years—should again be prosecuted in Vermont by the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries. Upon the completion of 
the pike perch operations, therefore, arrangements were imme- 
diately begun for the collection of sturgeon eggs in both the 
Missisquoi and Lamoille rivers, and parties owning the neces- 
sary equipment were employed to do the fishing. Nets were 
operated in the Missisquoi and at various points in the bay of the 
same name, night and day from May 5th to 27th; but during 
this period only three sturgeon were captured, while in the same 
river and using this method of fishing Mr. Stone three years 
before had secured upward of thirty fish. The three taken 

this year—a large female which had already spawned, or which 
was very green, and two males 

were liberated after being held 
for ten days. 
At the mouth of the Lamoille river a number of nets were 
set on May 7th, and fishing was regularly continued in various 
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