Why the Book Was Written. ii 



called him. Mr. Blackford then asked me to take 

 charge of it, which I did on January i, 1883, and four 

 years later planned and built the present hatchery, 

 which is not only the best, but is also the most impor- 

 tant one in the State. There I learned how to hatch 

 over 70 per cent, of the adhesive eggs of the smelt, and 

 in the hatching of lobsters discovered that they spawn 

 Oiily once in two years. Changes in the Commission 

 threw me out in 1895. 



These things are mentioned merely to show that I 

 have some right to opinions on fishculture after an ex- 

 perience of thirty years, and, there being no modern 

 book on general fishculture, outside of the Government 

 publications, such a book has been asked for ; but as 

 trout breeding is not only the parent of fishculture, but 

 the most popular form of it, a large portion of the book 

 is devoted to that branch, and I hope that the novice 

 may profit by it and avoid many failures which fell to 

 the lot of those who were the pioneers in this work. 



On methods where fishculturists differ about details 

 I have given the opinions of some of the best informed 

 men in America, and in the culture of whitefish and 

 wall-eyed pike, where my own experience has been 

 little or nothing, I have asked well-known men of ex- 

 perience to write these chapters in order that the book 

 may be as nearly perfect as possible. Fishculturists 

 may differ with me on some small matters, but that is 

 to be expected, and will not affect the general result. 



The book has been many years in preparation in the 

 way of gathering material, circulars having been sent 

 to fishculturists in J891 concerning the feeding of fry 

 in troughs and of the diseases of adult trout, the an- 

 swers to which will be found under those heads. 



Naturally, reference is frequently made to my own 



