64 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



nated within that time no power can fertilize it. Al- 

 ways dilute the milt slightly with water or it will not 

 be active. Bloody milt is not good. Here is where we 

 beat nature by bringing every egg in contact with the 

 milt and giving it a chance to get a spermatozoon be- 

 fore it has ceased absorbing. 



At first the eggs adhere to the pan or to each other, 

 because they are flabby, just as a piece of wet leather 

 adheres to and can be made to lift a brick. They must 

 not be disturbed until they have drunk their fill and 

 are free, when they are washed from superfluous milt 

 and placed on the trays. Leave them long in the pan 

 and don't hurry their freeing ; the colder the water the 

 longer they adhere. 



The Russi.vn Method. — The above is the so-called 

 "Russian Method," which made a great stir among 

 fishculturists in America. We used to follow nature so 

 closely that we took the eggs in a pan nearly full of 

 water. Jn the New York Citizen of May 27, 1871, Mr. 

 George Shephard Page had the experiments of M. 

 Yrasski, a Russian scientist, translated, and it proved 

 that impregnation was more perfect if the eggs and 

 milt were put together before water was added, and 

 when we tried it our per cent, of impregnation was 

 more than doubled and the "dry method" at once be- 

 came popular ; yet sixteen }'ears had intervened be- 

 tween the discovery of \'rasski and the translation. 

 All American fishculturists had been wondering why a 

 trout carried so many unfertile eggs, but had not stum- 

 bled on the secret. Of course one man claimed to have 

 known it for years, but as it was his habit to claim 

 every discovery, no one paid any attention to him, and 

 if he really did know it and did not publish it he could 

 not claim credit ; yet that fact never hindered him. In 



