FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 4, 1906. 
1 80 
Brook Trout Weight Record. 
Worcester, Mass., July 16.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: 1 have seen a speckled trout that 
had been caught in a pond in Maine that 
weighed 14^ pounds. This trout, which was a 
regular red-spotted, square-tail, brook trout, was 
mounted here in this city by C. K. Read, about 
six years ago. It was caught by a man named 
Eaton. I made a claim at the time that it was 
a world beater. The Maine papers got hold 
of the piece I had written: then the State De¬ 
partment at Augusta sent here and bought it; 
and I am informed that it is in the Maine State 
House now. I believed then, as I do now, that 
it is the largest brook trout ever taken in 
American waters. It was just as perfect in form 
as any pound trout I ever saw. 
This man Eaton, who caught it, sent it to his 
brother here to have it set up. His brother 
knowing I was “fishy,” sent for me to come and 
see it. It had an affidavit of the sheriff of the 
town, and several others who had seen it, at¬ 
tached, date caught, weight, etc. 
A. B. F. Kinney. 
Massachusetts Trout Hatcheries. 
Boston, July 25.—The State has four stations 
for trout hatching. Of those at Winchester and 
Adams, the late Captain Collins in his report 
for 1903, says they are only what may be called 
“developing stations,” where fish eggs may be 
taken in the eyed stage, hatched and reared for 
distribution as fry. No trout can be reared to 
the fingerling stage at either of these stations. 
Of the one at South Hadley, in the same re¬ 
port, the Captain says, in substance, it is impos¬ 
sible to accomplish anything beyond hatching fry 
and maintaining a brood-stock of fish under diffi¬ 
culties. In his report for 1904, he pronounces 
the temperature of the water between April and 
September at Hadley too high for the rearing of 
young fish, and says the work of rearing finger- 
lings (for 1904) was thrown entirely upon the 
Sutton hatchery. 
“The most certain results,” says his report, 
"follow stocking with fingerlings,” and “the de¬ 
mand for them exceeds many times the capacity 
of our rearing ponds.” 
In order to meet the “reasonable demands” 
which come from all sections of the State, he 
says, increased facilities for rearing them must 
be provided. The condition to-day remains the 
same, no additional facilities have been provided. 
The output for October planting this year is not 
likely to exceed that of 1903 or 1904. The supply 
for distribution will be less than one-half the 
number applied for. It is this condition that has 
led the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 
Association to close a contract for a large number 
of fingerlings to be distributed to clubs and in¬ 
dividuals at a nominal price the coming fall. The 
fact that the State commission is thus handi¬ 
capped in this important line of work is greatly 
to be regretted, and there seems to be no remedy 
but for the sportsmen to step into the breach 
by “going down into their pockets.” 
The late Captain Collins was a recognized au¬ 
thority on matters of fishculture, but if it were 
needed his opinion could be re-enforced by that 
of many others. Hon. H. O. Stanley, for many 
years in charge of the fishculture work which 
has done so much to keep up the fishing in the 
lakes and streams of Maine, bent all his energies 
the last few years of his term in office to raising 
as many as possible of the fish for planting to 
the fingerling stage, and declared that he would 
give more for one fish of some size than for 
fifty- fry. While no one would take the ground 
that fry are in all cases, however and wherever 
planted, absolutely worthless, it is not believed 
that five per cent, of them, as ordinarily planted, 
escape destruction by the larger trout and other 
fish-eating denizens of the streams. 
Year by year, the demand for trout of some 
size has gone on increasing, while the facilities 
for raising them at the State hatcheries has re¬ 
mained in statu quo. 
Massachusetts Fish and Game 
Protective Association. 
By H. H. Kimball, Secretary. 
In view of the fact that the Massachusetts 
Commissioners on Fisheries and Game have been 
able for several years to supply only a small part 
of the fingerling trout applied for, the Mass¬ 
achusetts Fish and Game Protective Association 
offers to furnish them for October planting in 
brooks wholly or in part open to public fishing, 
in lots of 1,000 or more, for the nominal price 
of $10 per thousand. No orders for less than 
1.000 will be accepted. Orders should be sent to 
the Secretary of the Association as early as 
August 12. 
Little Brooks. 
One day some two or three years ago the 
Doctor and the writer determined to hunt up a 
brook laid down on the map, and find out 
whether there were trout in it or not. and if 
so, whether they might be caught. After a 
drive of several miles we turned down a side 
road, a stony, overgrown track, with bushes on 
either side that nearly met in the middle, and 
after following this about half a mile, came out 
in a little valley. Here was the place, and we 
began to look for the brook. At last we crossed 
a small bridge, a mere hole under the road, and 
concluding that it must be the stream, got out 
and tied the horse to the fence. Rods in hand 
we plunged into the bushes, and after struggling 
through an alder swamp for a quarter of a mile 
came out into the meadow. Here we found the 
brook, a mere trickle of ice-cold water from a 
mass of woodland springs forming a swamp 
above. It was scarcely a foot wide on the 
average, and almost entirely covered over with 
the tall grass. Flies being of no use, we put 
on good, lively worms, and wherever we could 
find an opening dropped them in. In this way 
we fished down the meadow and took sixteen 
trout, nine inches, just the size for the pan, and 
much to our surprise, too, for it was a bright, 
hot afternoon in July. After we had worked 
down through the meadow, we found that the 
brook,, receiving more water from an open 
swamp, became larger and formed some fine 
pools. The first one we came to in the edge of 
the woods was an ideal trout pool. A little 
cascade tumbled into it and sent a swirl of water 
along a huge hemlock log, that for thirty feet 
formed a mossy embankment along the side. 
There were fine lurking places all along under 
this log. The Doctor, standing well back, 
dropped his bait into the fall, and let the water 
roll it along the bottom in front of the log. 
I waited eagerly. We had had such unexpected 
luck in the little stream above that I anticipated 
rare sport in the pool. I saw the Doctor’s line 
tighten. He struck and the next instant was 
lifting carefully ashore, a large, well-fed—dace. 
Noticing the expression on his face, I said noth¬ 
ing, but leaving him struggling with the.fish, 
which had snarled his line in a bush, I took 
his place and cast. I had a bite, struck, and 
lifted ashore—another dace. Well, we stood 
there ten or twelve minutes and lifted out dace 
alternately. I put on a cast of flies and caught 
—dace. We worked down stream to experiment, 
but it was all dace and no trout, and as the 
afternoon grew late we retraced our steps, and 
drove home in time to see our trout smoking 
on the supper table. 
This incident illustrates well some points I 
wish to make in regard to little brooks. It is, 
alas! an undeniable fact that the trout in our 
brooks and streams in the New England and 
Middle States are every year decreasing in num¬ 
bers, and deteriorating in size and quality. The 
cause of this is not difficult to find. It is not so 
much the illegal taking of the fish by spearing, 
snaring, netting, and poisoning the pools with 
lime, though this is bad enough, for trout have 
stood all this and have not been entirely ex¬ 
terminated; it is not so much the dumping of 
sawdust, filth and chemicals into the brook, for 
there are thousands of small streams throughout 
the country where this has never been done, 
and yet where trout once swarmed now they 
are not, but it is by reckless and injudicious 
cutting down the woods. I am not now speak¬ 
ing of the wholesale destruction of vast forests, 
such as is-now agitating the public at large; it 
is a much more simple and everyday matter. 
Our trout is not a true trout, in one sense of 
the word, but a char, and like all of the chars, 
icy cold water is his very life. In the Thames, 
where the congener, Salmo fario, is every year 
caught of enormous size, our trout could not, 
probably, thrive at all. Now, that which gives 
the water of our streams this quality, so neces¬ 
sary to Salvelinus fontinalis (does not his very 
name bespeak it), is spring water. Every year 
the farmers, in cutting down woods, lay bare 
some spring. This may not always be an open 
one, but there are always indications that it is 
there. Thus uncovered to the sun, the spring 
either dries up or its waters become warm and 
bad. In this manner the brooks, and of neces¬ 
sity the larger streams, gradually become tepid 
in temperature, and in summer diminished in 
volume,- killing the trout in time, and causing 
them to decrease in size and quality in the pro¬ 
cess. At the same time, it favors the spread and 
growth of coarse, soft-fleshed, inferior fish, 
which take the food from the trout and devour 
their spawn. In the incident I have related, 
the tiny beck which issued from a swampy piece 
of ground, filled with springs, was alive with 
trout, because its water, being sheltered at its 
very source from the fierce July sun, was cold 
and clear. But as we went lower down, another 
stream of larger volume joined the little brook. 
The water of this latter stream came from an 
open swamp exposed to the midsummer heat, 
and as a natural sequence we found no trout 
below its mouth, but dace. Now, had this 
swamp been covered with a heavy growth of 
timber, I venture to assert its waters would have 
been much improved in quality and temperature, 
and the trout would not have been obliged to 
leave the main stream and crowd up into the 
little brook in order not to stifle. 
I think that twenty acres of woodland, rightly 
distributed in protecting the springs and marshy, 
springy spots, which form the headwaters of the 
little brooks and their confluents, would be of 
more value on a farm than fifty acres in one 
patch left at random, and could this be realized 
generally we would have less of the shrinkage 
of water and water power in summer time. Un¬ 
fortunately, most farmers seem to have no idea 
of the value of a piece of woods beyond that 
of some day being able to cut it all down to sell, 
or use the timber. They think that a patch of 
woods is waste ground till it is down, and never 
realize that it is really, if rightly placed, a vast 
sponge to store up water which will make their 
land more fertile and help them out in time of 
drought. This is well illustrated by one of the 
correspondents of this paper, who told of the 
increased fertility and value of his land from 
having formed a trout pond. The thirsty land 
by capillary force drew the water many rods 
inland, and thus improved the crops. There are 
many little watercourses which run dry in sum¬ 
mer, which, if their sources were properly pro¬ 
tected, would be little trickles of water even in 
the hottest weather. These are of untold value 
to the farmer and the streams. It is, of course, 
well nigh impossible to get the farmers in the 
settled parts of the country to do anything 
radical to improve this matter, but show them 
it will pay, and the right spirit once aroused, 
much will be done. In parts still unsettled an 
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 
As I write, an instance of this thing rises be¬ 
fore me, and I feel impelled to give it. I know 
a stream that once, from its source to its mouth, 
was a fine trout brook. It is formed by two 
main branches, and on the map looks like a little 
Y. Both branches rose in woodland fields, their 
waters were clear and cold. A number of years 
ago the woods which covered the source of the 
right-hand branch were cut down. Now a 
miserable bog occupies the site. No trout are 
to be found any more in this stream, but it is 
filled with dace, etc. It is a torrent in winter, a 
mud hole in summer. The land along its course 
has suffered with it. The other branch has 
not been injured in this way. It flows with a 
more even volume, and is filled with trout. It 
cools the main stream, so that trout are plenty 
to its mouth, and not a dace is to be found be¬ 
low the fork. 
I did not intend to write so much of an 
agricultural treatise when I started, but as agri- 
