4-TIIE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF TIIF RAINBOW TROUT. 
By GEORGE A. SEAGLE, 
Superintendent of the United States Fish Commission Station at Wytheville, Virginia. 
The following brief treatise on the most modern and successful plans for the 
artificial propagation of the rainbow trout (Salmo iridens) has been prepared for the 
information and instruction of all wlio appreciate the advantages of fully stocking 
our streams with suitable fishes, thereby increasing the extent and variety of our food 
products and lessening their cost. It is written from an entirely practical standpoint, 
and it is hoped that witli the aid of the accompanying illustrations all the necessary 
information will be conveyed in such a manner as to enable those interested in the 
subject to appropriate it to their own use and advantage. We have avoided, as far as 
possible, the use of scientific and technical terms and have attemxhed, in the plainest 
and simplest manner, to state the habits of this interesting and important species of 
fish and the methods by which they are now successfully propagated artificially at the 
Wytheville Station, explaining the design and construction of the requisite ai>paratus, 
the manner of building the ponds, and giving such other information as has been 
gained by 14 years of experience in the xjractical xiart of this work. 
This fish is not indigenous to our eastern waters. Its original habitat was the 
Pacific Coast, extending from Mexico to the Canadian border, and ])ossibly still farther 
north. In this extensive section of the West its name varied with different localities; 
“redsides,” “mountain trout,” “brook trout,” “golden trout,” etc., were some of the 
appellations; but in the States east of the Mississipi^i River the names generally given 
are “rainbow trout” or “California trout.” It was first introduced into the eastern 
waters by the United States Fish Commission in 1880, but it is iirobable that si^ecimens 
of it or its spawn were brought here j)rior to that time by some of the State commissions 
or by private enteri>rise. Be this as it may, the Wytheville Station wars one of the 
first Government hatcheries to rear and handle them, and it was here that the writer 
made their acquaintance in the spring of 1882. 
Size . — This depends chiefly upon the waters in which they are found, the size of 
the stream, the temxierature of the water, the amount of food it contains, etc. The 
average weight of those caught from streams in this locality is lirobably less than a 
I)Ound, but some weighing 6f x)ounds have been taken. In the Ozark regions of Mis- 
souri they reach a weight of 5 to 10 pounds. In some of the cold mountain streams 
of Colorado their average siz6 would not be more than 0 or 8 ounces; while in lakes in 
the same locality, where the water is moderately warm in summer and food is plentiful, 
they grow to weigh 12 and 13 x>ounds and reach a length of from 25 to 28 inches. In 
Au Sable River, in Michigan, they attain a weight of 5 to 7 x^ounds. In their native 
streams of California they are often caught ranging in size from 3 to 10 x>ounds, but 
the average would xR'obably be from 1 to 2 x>ounds. The largest sx)ecimen ever x^ro- 
duced in the x^onds at the Wytheville Station, and fed artificially, Aveighed 0^- x^ounds, 
but many others in the same pond will weigh from 1 to 3 x^ounds. 
239 
