1091 
<Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Raising Brook Trout; Game Laws 
Can you give mo any information about raising brook 
trout, including details about their life habits, require¬ 
ments for success, marketing possibilities, where to 
obtain breeding stock, etc. V Also any other sources of 
information. A - r - s - 
Willimantic, Conn. 
H atching requirements.— it is as hard 
to answer this question as it might he to tell 
everything about raising chickens or cows. The 
raising of any kind of fish on a commercial scale is 
as much of a business as dairying or fruit-growing. 
A man with a proper 
pond and the right kind 
of a stream flowing into 
it could raise a few 
hundred flsli a year for 
home use or local sale 
with very little cost or 
trouble beyond giving 
them some more food 
than they could get 
from the pond. If any¬ 
thing more elaborate 
than this were intended 
there must be a rather 
large outlay for perma¬ 
nent equipment. A loca¬ 
tion must he found 
where there is enough 
water at all times to 
give a full supply for 
the hatching and rearing boxes and ponds. It is 
reported that at least one hatchery in this country 
was. for political reasons, placed in a certain town 
on a stream so small that wells liad to be dug and 
expensive pumping machinery installed to keep up 
the flow of water. 
WIIAT TROUT NEED.—The brook trout is a 
native of practically all the streams of the north¬ 
eastern United States where the water 
is not too warm. It is also found in 
most of Canada east of the Rocky 
Mountains and is hard to separate 
from several closely allied species 
found in the same region. In fact, 
some of the strains of cultivated trout 
differ as much from the ordinary wild 
fish as these do from some of the ones 
that are called species. The Annin 
trout, for instance, are much more 
stocky in'appearance than those propa¬ 
gated by the State of New York up t<> 
a few years ago. They are notably 
heavier for their length. Trout feed 
on everything moving in the water and 
not too large. Mainly, however, in 
nature they live on the small insects 
and crustaceans which live among the 
stones and on the water plants of the streams and 
ponds. They want their food alive, and the test of 
life is motion. This probably accounts for the tales 
of catching large numbers of trout using black¬ 
berries as bait, and for the fact that various kinds 
of vegetable matter are usually found in their 
stomachs. They are found in all kinds of water, 
from the clear mountain spring to muddy ponds, if 
r h e w a t e r is cold 
enough. Unless the 
water is flowing very 
swiftly they c a n not 
stand a temperature 
much higher than 60 to 
(I. - ) degrees. Fish cul- 
turists occasionally tel! 
of saving a lot of young 
trout when the water in 
the hatchery supply 
reached 70 degrees In¬ 
putting a very few trout 
in each box or pond 
and then giving them a 
very large supply of 
water. 
HATCHING.—If they 
hatch and the fry drift down into the pools, where 
they stay until the yolk is absorbed before they 
begin to eat. By the end of the first Summer they 
will be from three to six inches long, and are known 
as fingerlings. By the end of the second >ear they 
should reach a weight of about half a pound, and 
the third season should bring them to a pound if 
the food is where they can get it. Except during 
the spawning seasofi they will eat whenever they 
can get food. 
ARTIFICIAL BREEDING.—In artificial rearing 
Officers of the Farm Bureau Federation of New Ytrk State. Fig. 308. (See Page 1111) 
the breeding fish are kept in ponds until ready to 
spawn. The exact time can he told only by one 
who has handled the fish until he understands just 
the difference in appearance between a “ripe” fish 
and one not quite ready. The beginner must expect 
to injure many of his fish and to lose many eggs 
until he learns just when to try to strip them. The 
eggs are forced from the fish by pressure, and 
Oneida County Corn and Potato Clubs. Fig. 309. (See Page 1111) 
caught in a clean pan which has been dipped lit 
water and then emptied. The milt from the male 
is then forced into the same pan and thoroughly 
mixed with the eggs by stirring them gently with 
the lingers or a feather. The eggs are then rinsed 
in several changes of water and allowed to stand 
until they separate, when they are no longer in 
danger of sticking to everything they may touch. 
V 
Madison County, S. 
Farm Bureau Director a* Dinner at Cazenocia. Fig. 310. (See Page 1111) 
have been removed to rearing boxes. The best food 
is liver which has been run through a meat chopper 
and then strained through a fine screen to take out 
all filler. A very small amount should be spread 
on Hie water each day to test the-fish, until they 
begin to eat, when they should have a small amount 
six or eight times a day. As they get larger they 
should be put in ponds and fed regularly. As they 
will be shy when first put in the ponds it will be 
necessary to take much time to the feeding: one 
account says that three-quarters of an hour three 
times a day is not too 
much for a pond hold¬ 
ing 5.000 fish. The time 
of feeding may he 
shoi'te n e d and tlie 
amount increased care¬ 
fully. but it takes good 
judgment to get the 
right medium betweeu 
too much and not 
enough. 
BEGINNING THE 
WORK.—This is a very 
short outline of a few 
of the things that must 
he done by the fish cul- 
turist. It would prob¬ 
ably be better for the 
beginner to buy finger- 
lings from some regular 
dealer and later work into the hatching end of the 
business if he so wished. Anyone wishing to start 
in the raising of fish for market should visit some 
of the regular fish hatcheries and see how things 
are done and how the various boxes, trays, troughs 
and ponds are built and kept. Anyone with a pond 
in which the temperature of the water does not get 
higher than about 60 degrees at any time of the year 
can get a few trout from some dealer, 
put them in the pond, feed them a lit¬ 
tle and catch them either with hook 
and line or in a net. and have plenty 
of fish for home use. and possibly some 
for sale at little cost of time or money. 
On the other hand, the raising of a 
large number of trout as a business 
would require a large expense for out¬ 
fit and the whole time of one or more 
persons. As a business, and run under 
business methods, it has already proved 
profitable, hut there are so many little 
things, any one of which might lose 
the whole result of a year's or of 
several seasons’ work, that the begin¬ 
ner should be very cautious. 
THE LEGAL SIDE.—All this has 
been written without mention of the 
legal end of the matter. In New York State such 
a business could he carried on by getting certain 
licenses, tags, tagging machines, etc-., from the Con¬ 
servation Commission upon the payment of certain 
fees and the giving of bonds, etc. I do no 1 - know 
what the rules are in other States. Our own are 
# 
ridiculous, and often caiise great annoyance, but 
they were written into the laws by the efforts of 
certain persons who 
fear that making the 
land-owner able to con¬ 
trol the movements of 
trespassers may restrict 
someone's freedom of 
action. They lose sight 
of the fact that the 
easiest way to protect 
our game and fish is to 
make it profitable for 
the land-owners t<> have 
them protected. At 
present it is a serious 
liability for a land¬ 
owner to have any wild 
game on his property. I 
am told that a few 
are to be allowed to breed naturally they must have 
a stream with gravelly riffles where there is no silt 
allowed to gather during the Winter months. In 
late Summer or early Autumn, as the water begins 
to get cool, the fish work up stream until suitable 
gravel bars are found. Here when the water is 
cool enough, the females build their nests by work¬ 
ing over the gravel and letting the sand wash away. 
At the proper time the eggs are laid, and at once 
fertilized by the milt which the male spreads over 
them. The movements of the fish spread fine gravel 
over the eggs, and they are ready to pass the Winter 
before hatching. As the water warms up the eggs 
They are then placed in the hatching trays, which 
are put in the troughs so that the water must run 
through every tray as it passes from one end of the 
trough to the other. They must be examined every 
few days, and dead eggs picked out. In from 50 to 
125 days, according to the temperature of the 
water, the eggs will hatch. They are then washed 
to remove the shells and other- asV; and put hack 
in the hatching trays until the yolk is absorbed, 
which will be in 25 to 40 days, according to 
temperature. 
FEEDING THE BABIES.—About the time the 
yolk is absorbed they will begin to feed and should 
years ago a certain member of a legislative body 
told some of his constituents that if any of them 
wished to go to the expense of hiring a game pro¬ 
tector for their farms he would see to it that such 
protector was made a special deputy sheriff. Such 
a plan might be all right if the farmers in a section 
bounded by certain roads could be got to unite on 
it. In our case it would require the united action 
of about 12 property owners to take care of part 
of our farm and the rest of the land inside of a 
certain loop of road. If we could get these owners 
together we might incorporate ourselves as a game 
park, and rent out to some club which would take 
