252 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



In propagating trout by artificial means the time is the same naturally, but the 

 place is different, and the manner will hereafter be shown as briefly as in the 

 case of nature's methods. 



The stock fish are confined in ponds, and there may or may not be spawning 

 races leading into the ponds. At one time it was considered best to provide 

 such races, but it is no longer considered absolutely necessary. If spawning races 

 are used a bag net is fixed at the lower end of the race after the fish have 

 entered, and by lifting the covers of the race the fish are driven into the bag,, 

 the extreme end of which is tied with a string. The bag is lifted over the tub, 

 the fish untied and the fish slide into the tub. The races are merely shallowed 

 boxes covered, and with gravel at the bottom through which the water flows to 

 feed the pond containing the fish. As the fish are seized with the breeding 

 instinct they make their way into the races and fan the gravel as in the case of 

 wild fish in wild waters. This serves only as a signal to the fish breeder that 

 the fish are about to spawn, and he thereafter directs the spawning operations, 

 believing for once, at least, that man's methods are superior to those of Dame 

 Nature in some of the details of reproducing members of a class of the animal 

 kingdom, and of these details it is surprising that in this day and generation so 

 many people, interested generally in fishing matters in a broad sense, should be 

 absolutely ignorant as they are practiced in a hatchery, and this is sufficient 

 reason for dwelling upon these here. The trout in a hatchery pond, having by 

 their actions given evidence they are ready to spawn, are netted and placed in tubs 

 filled with water by the side of the pond, and the spawn taken with a supply of shal- 

 low tin pans. His assistant, the net and the tub, may be seen in the accompanying 

 illustration, the drawing being made from life and so accurate that the two men will 

 be readily recognized by any one who has seen them at one of the hatcheries belong- 

 ing to the State of New York. It is not necessary to separate the fish, the males in 

 one tub and the females in another, even if some of the books so direct, as I believe 

 they do. In taking eggs by the dry process, the discovery of Vrasski, a Russian 

 fish breeder, though credited at about the same time to an American who very 

 frankly declares that he simply read of Vrasski's method in a French journal, and 

 practiced it, the pans are dipped in water and the water poured from them, having 

 them moist and free of dust. The female trout is taken from the tub and held over 

 the pan in the manner indicated in the illustration. Then slide the hand down the 

 abdomen over the ovaries with a gentle pressure, at the same time bending the body 

 of the fish, and if the eggs are ripe they will flow freely. No force should be used. 

 If the eggs do not come under gentle pressure put the fish back and try another. 



