NOTES ON THE FEEDING OF PARENT TROUT, 
WITH REFERENCE TO VIRILITY OF 
EGGS PRODUCED. 
BY GEORGE R. ALLEN. 
A change in my duties prevented the completion of the 
experiments set forth in this paper, and it is presented in the 
hope that some one in a position to do so will continue worl 
along the lines indicated. 
The brood ponds utilized for the experiments were each 25 
feet long, 12 feet wide, and contained water to a depth of 41% 
feet. During the season of 1901 the brook trout in them, at that 
time six years of age, yielded an average of 1052 eges per fish, 
and an equal number of males were stripped to impregnate the 
spawn. Of the eggs obtained 9 per cent were lost during im- 
pregnation. 
At the close of the spawning season the fish were divided into 
two lots. The first lot were given a diet consisting of two parts 
sheep lights, one part sheep liver, and one part sheep hearts. 
The second lot were fed solely on dead trout eggs up to April 18, 
at which time their appetites began to increase. As the supply 
of dead trout eggs exceeded the number required in feeding, the 
surplus eggs were frozen and preserved in a refrigerator, the last 
of them being fed to the fish on June 4. Beginning on April 
18 the second lot of trout were given a mixture composed of four 
parts bran, two parts fish eggs, one part each of meal and sheep 
hearts. 
During the progress of the experiments no salt was placed in 
the food of the fish or thrown into the ponds. At intervals of 
once a week a bushel of swamp or wood earth were placed in the 
spout leading to the second lot of fish and allowed to wash into 
the pond, the water supply at such times being increased one- 
third, and on each following day all sediment and decayed 
vegetation was removed from the pond, thereby giving the fish 
a second bath. It was noted that on these and the succeeding 
days they were more active and that their appetites were much 
keener. 
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