TO MAKE BACON. 
253 
mg, and covering the ova, till the process is com¬ 
pleted, which often occupies three or four days. 
The subject of artificial hatching has been much 
elucidated by the labors of Professor Agassiz, Sir 
Francis McKenzie, and others, particularly by 
Mr. Shaw, who has long and successfully been 
engaged in the artificial process, in his highly inte¬ 
resting investigations on the growth of salmon, at 
Drumlanrig, in Scotland. How long the ova may 
remain extruded from the body of the female, and 
continue susceptible of the fecundating influence of 
the milt of the male, has not, as far as my know¬ 
ledge extends, hitherto been ascertained. Mr. 
Shaw states that, “ in one instance, the female had 
been dead for nearly two hours, without the vital 
principle being in the slightest degree affected.” 
Nothing can be simpler than collecting the spawn 
which has recently been impregnated; or than 
fecundating it artificially, by securing the parent 
fishes,. when engaged in the process of spawning,' 
confining them in some receptacle, prepared for 
them, and then disposing it at pleasure. If left in 
its native bed, immense quantities are consumed, 
both in the state of ova and young fry, by older in¬ 
dividuals of their own species, by fish of other 
kinds, by newts, lizards, aquatic birds, and various 
other foes ; whereas, by a little care, the ova can 
be hatched in perfect security, and the young fry 
committed to the pond, or river, as soon as they 
have the ability to elude the pursuit of their de¬ 
stroyers. 
In illustration of this subject, the following in¬ 
stance is quoted from an account lately published 
by Sir F. A. McKenzie : “ On the 23d of Novem¬ 
ber, 1840, four pair of salmon were caught and 
placed in a small artificial • pool. A pair having 
commenced spawning, on the following day they 
were carefully caught, and from the female about 
twelve hundred ova were gently squeezed into a 
basin of water, and an equal quantity of milt from 
the male fish ; the two v/ere gently stirred and 
mixed, and allowed to rest for an hour, when the 
whole was deposited and spread in one of the 
wicker baskets recommended by Prof. Agassiz, 
having about four inches of gravel beneath them, 
and two or three inches above them. A similar 
quantity of ova, treated in the same way, was also 
deposited in one of the copper-wire bags used by 
Mr. Shaw; and both were immediately placed 
under water in the pool. In another instance, the 
ova and milt were squeezed directly into the basket 
and copper-wire bag, having gravel beneath, and 
two inches of gravel placed over them, and they, 
too, were deposited in the pool. Some of the im¬ 
pregnated ova were also buried in the open gravel 
about three inches deep. On the 18th of April, 
after one hundred and forty-six days, the baskets 
and bags were opened, and the young fry appeared 
as numerous in them, as from that which had been 
left free in the gravel. In one set of the baskets 
not above five per cent, appeared unproductive 
and hence Sir Francis’s conclusion can hardly be 
disputed, that the breeding of salmon, or other fish 
in large quantities, is, comparatively speaking, 
easy; and that millions may be produced protected 
from danger, and turned into their natural element 
at a proper age. 
Boccius, in his treatise on the “ Management of 
Fresh-water Fish,” gives in a few words the fol¬ 
lowing directions for the common European trout 
(Salmo fario), which doubtless would apply to 
many other kinds of fishes: “ Take one of the 
boxes I have described under the head of stew- 
boxes, and fill the bottom with good clean, 
moderately fine gravel. In the month of Novem¬ 
ber, or about four weeks before spawning, place 
in the box a spawner and a milter of good size, 
sink it in a deep stream, where there is plenty of 
water, and when the fish have cast, take them out 
and turn them adrift. Then move the box into 
shallow water, which being influenced by the rays 
of the sun, will early bring forth the fry. Keep 
them in the box.until they are about half an inch 
long, after which turn them out on the shoal 
water.” 
Successful experiments in spawning, have also 
been made with the trout by King Leopold, in Bel¬ 
gium, who has a large establishment for propagating 
fishes near his new palace of Ardennes. 
Whether the plan of hatching fry under fowls, 
adopted by that very wonderful nation, the Chinese, 
can ever be practised with advantage in this coun-« 
try, I am not prepared to say; but, as a curious in¬ 
stance of the ingenuity of that extraordinary 
people, it may not be uninteresting to give some 
account of it. For this purpose the spawn is col¬ 
lected from rivers and lakes, and disposed of to 
proprietors of ponds. When the. hatching season 
arrives, they empty a hen’s egg of its natural con¬ 
tents, for which they substitute the spawn. The 
opening in the shell is then closed up, the egg put 
under a hen, and after a few days, is removed, re¬ 
opened, and placed in a vessel of water warmed by 
the heat of the sun, where it is kept until the young 
fry are developed, and acquire sufficient strength 
to bear the ordinary temperature of common water. 
It is by such means and care as .this, according to 
Du Halde, that the vast population of the celestial 
empire, even in inland districts, can obtain excellent 
fish, at the rate of about a cent a pound. 
When once properly impregnated, the ova of all 
fish can be conveyed in boxes of gravel with suc¬ 
cess, as correctly stated by Professor Agassiz, in 
water of moderate temperature, even across the 
Atlantic, as safely as if they were naturally de¬ 
posited by the parent fish in its new locality; so 
that any quantity of spawn may be conveyed from 
one stream to another, however distant they may 
be situated. D’Jay Browne. 
New York, July 15, 1846. 
To make Bacon. —To each ham or piece of pork, 
weighing*from 15 to 18 lbs., take one tablespoonful 
of saltpetre, pounded fine, one ditto Cayenne pep¬ 
per, and with a sufficient quantity of Liverpool 
salt to be well rubbed. After this, each ham is 
to be laid on a plank, skin downwards, and covered 
well with a layer of salt. In that situation it is to 
be left for 7 w r eeks; after which, hang them up 
with hock end downwards, in the smoke-house, for 
2 months. Every morning fresh smoke, and in 
very cold or damp weather smoke them continually. 
When the hams come from the smoke-house, they 
are to be packed down in hickory ashes. 
