THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



FEEDING FINGERLING SALMON 



Results of Experiments Showing Relative Value of Feeding Raw 



and Cooked Foods 



By 



HARRY BEAL TORREY 



In Charge of Fish Experiment Station, Reed College 



The primary objects of the state fish hatcheries of Oregon 

 are, first, to prevent the extinction of the food and game fishes 

 that now run in our streams, and second, to increase the supply, 

 especially of those species that possess the greatest food and 

 game value. Owing to the constantly growing demand for 

 Pacific salmon and the more and more serious interference of 

 commercial fishing with the normal breeding habits of the fish, 

 it is obvious that the prosperity of one of the great industries 

 of Oregon can be assured only by the successful artificial propa- 

 gation of the salmon on a large scale. 



Success in this direction involves the pressing problem of 

 economy in administration. With every day that a young salmon 

 is cared for as a semi-domestic animal at a hatchery, its cost to 

 the public mounts. From the moment the egg is stripped from 

 the mother and, upon fertilization, begins its development, it 

 must be properly housed, properly protected against disease, 

 properly fed. The last item first assumes practical importance 

 after the food yolk has been absorbed and the young fish has 

 begun to take food through the mouth. Then the various other 

 necessary expenses of the hatchery are augmented by bills for 

 appropriate food stuffs. In such a large institution as that at 

 Bonneville, where many millions of eggs are hatched every year, 

 these bills are from the beginning by no means small. And as 

 the fishes wax in size, the amount of food they consume waxes 

 with them. 



A practical problem thus presents itself that has been 

 attacked from many directions, with varying degrees of success. 

 It would seem to be a simple solution to turn the young fish into 

 the streams to shift for themselves just as soon as they have 



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