THE FISHES OF ARKANSAS. 
71 
TROUT-REARING AT NEOSHO, MISSOURI. 
The following notes on some of the methods and results of rearing trout at the 
U. S. Fish Commission station, at Neosho, Mo., kindly furnished me by Mr. W. F. 
Page, the superintendent of that station, will be read with interest in this connec- 
tion : 
On the files of the Neosho station are quite a number of letters detailing catches of rainbow trout, 
3 to 7 ounds in weight, in the Ozark waters in 1893. The majoi'ity of the fish caught were from 
plants of yearling' fish made from tlie Neosho station in 1891, though some were the results of fry 
planted by the Missouri Fish Commission in 1880; notably, those caught in Lawrence and Pulaski 
counties, Missouri. That these fish may have an opiiortunity to get a start and a firm hold on these 
waters, and to commence natural reproduction, it is not deemed politic at this time to make puldic 
the names of the streams and the localities where they are known to be acclimated. In general, it 
can be accepted that wherever in the Ozark system healthy trout have been jilanted, with due regal'd 
to the conditions of local environment, all reasonable expectations have been realized. This is to be 
accounted for partly by the fact that the streams are in the main fed by bold, generous, warm springs 
(ranging in temperature from 57° to 59° F.) preserving a nearly equable teuqierature; and by the 
further fact that in nearly all these streams there exists a multitude of organisms suited to the diet 
of the Sahnonida’. My limited observations lead me to believe that this latter important factor is 
more pronounced in those waters having their rise on the southern and eastern slope of the Ozark 
uplift. Several of the smaller streams could lie mentioned which have, to all appearances, the same 
conditions, except that they are of higher temperature (but fortunately they are not loo high ), as the 
celebrated trout streams of Caledonia, N. Y., and Castalia, Ohio. 
The cultivation of trout at the Neosho station on the one side, and at the Mammoth Spring 
hatchery on the other side of the uplift, met with unprecedented success. On the inauguration of 
the effort it was doubted by mauj^ if trout could be grown so far south of their natural habitat. The 
experience of these two establishments has not only demonstrated that they can be grown in this lati- 
tude, at the low elevation of 1,000 feet and less, but grown to a size in a given time not surpassed by 
any hatchery in the world, and further, that not only are their generative organs not stunted by this 
forcing process, but that they develop in from one to two years sooner than in other localities. Year- 
ling trout which were shipjied in 1891 from Neosho to Castalia, Ohio, were there pronounced from size 
and appearance to be past 2 years old. Nearly half a million trout eggs shiijped from Neosho in the 
winter of 1892-93, to States ranging from Neliraska to Vermont, were pronounced in every case to have 
produced first-class vigorous fish. These eggs were the siirylus yield from 3-year-old trout raised at 
Neosho. The same stock at 2 years old had given us a handsome lot of eggs. 
A study of tlie accompanying taldes will show that in this country trout can be made to attain 
the best marketable weight, namely one-fourth to one-third of a pound, by the end of their four- 
teenth mouth, at a cost of less than 7 cents a pound. From the study at present being given to the 
subject of the food of fishes under domestication, it is not improbable that in the near future this cost 
maybe reduced 50 per cent. As it is, trout at 7 cents a pound gives a handsome revenue on the 
wholesale market x>rice of 40 cents. 
The fish-culturist engaged in rearing the finer grades of fish for the market can find no Ijetter 
water and climate for his work than is furnished Ijy the uncounted springs of the Ozarks. It is here, 
in the shortest time, with the least expenditure of food materials, that he can convert his eggs into 
pounds of trout. 
l^EEDING AND GROWTH OF RAINBOW TROUT IN THEIR SECOND YEAR. 
On February 20, 1893, we coufited 1,500 13-mouths-old extra-select rainbow trout into pond No. 2, 
to he raised for future brood stock. Their total weight was 140'5 pounds, an average of 93'67 pounds 
per 1,000; their average length was 7 inches each. 
April 26, 1893 (65 days afterward), these trout were reweighed and found to average 260 pounds 
lier 1,000, and to measure from 8 to 9 inches, being .an increase in weight of 178 per cent. During these 
65 days they had been given 185 pounds of liver and 1,008 pounds of mush, costing $9.29; or each pound 
of trout gained (after the 20th of February) cost a fraction over 3| cents.. 
May 20, 1893, 90 days after the fish were first put into No. 2 pond, they were again reweighed and 
found to average 320 pounds to the 1,000 fish and to run from 9 to 9J- inches long, being an increase in 
