PROPAGATION OF TROUT IN AMERICA. 189 
produced with greater profit to the producer than any kind of meat, no 
member of the Club entertains a doubt. But to induce people to enter 
upon the business, the subject needs to be constantly agitated." In 
addition to these gentlemen, Mr. Aaron Vail and Mr. Eamsbottom (who 
is son of Robert Ranisbottom, and brother to Mr. Ranisbottom who 
is now engaged at propagating trout in Australia from fecundated 
roe transported from England), we know of but lew more in this 
country; but the vital subject is undergoing incubation, and promises a 
superabundant yield after the people become fully awake to the immense 
profits and the attractive amusement and luxury of propagating trout by 
artificial means. 
Spring water from 40 deg. to 45 deg. has thus far proven best for 
propagating trout in this country. Prof. Ram sb otto m states that a 
spring is preferable to a brook, since the latter is liable to sudden inun- 
dations which sweep away the ova or destroy them by deposits of mud. 
In other respects, also, a spring is much more desirable, the temperature 
of spring water being higher in the winter season, and more equable 
than that of river water. It is the superior warmth of spring water 
which renders its employment almost essential to the progress of artifi- 
cial propagation. When deposited in the bed of a spring the ova are 
hatched in a much shorter period than in river water. The term of 
their exposure to the numerous causes of destruction is consequently 
less, and the probability of their ultimate escape proportionably greater. 
Instead of being liable to injury for more than one hundred days they 
are frequently hatched in sixty. River water, indeed, may be of so low 
a temperature as to render it impossible that the ova shall ever be 
hatched at all, even when properly impregnated and deposited. In 
situations where spring water cannot be obtained in sufficient quantities, 
the river water should pass through a filter of sand and gravel. If the 
spring is large enough, and the ground suitable, it may be divided into 
artificial rills with a pipe of two inches run of water to each. Under 
all circumstances a gentle, equable, and pure current is indispensable. 
If you have a trout-pond, tap it at the sluice in the dam, with 
several pipes of two inches diameter, covering the ends in the pond with 
fine wire gauze, to exclude young fish, or the eggs of such fish or 
reptiles as are enemies to the trout. Conduct the water through these 
pipes to rows of boxes about two feet wide and six feet long, the boxes, 
from the head one nearest the dam, resting two inches lower than the 
one which immediately precedes it, so as to produce a current suffici- 
ently swift in this artificial stream formed of a row, or several rows of 
boxes, and each row formed of a half-dozen boxes. One pipe to supply 
each row of boxes, and then you may have as many rows of boxes as 
you have water to supply, always bearing in mind that the water must 
run continually. The waste water, after it leaves the boxes, may be 
conducted by a ditch into the brook below the dam, or into a pond pre- 
pared to receive the young trout. The bottoms of the boxes are next 
