PRACTICAL PAPERS—FISH CULTURE. 
4*7 
about one-tenth as many as the white fish. The method of spawn¬ 
ing is the same as that of the salmon and brook trout; a nest or 
hole being made for the reception of the eggs. In regard to these 
eggs the same story must be told—most of them are eaten before 
they are ten minutes old. It must be remembered that all fish 
are inordinately fond of fish eggs. The salmonidae will not only 
eat them while falling, but, contrary to their usual habits, they 
will poke and root in the mud of the bottom to find those which 
drop. The eggs also are destroyed by wild ducks. These ducks 
will gather over a spawning ground as soon as the fish commence 
to spawn, and will remain there till frozen out. The size of the 
spawning ground can generally be told from the size of the flock 
of ducks over it. It may be generally supposed that as the fish 
spawn in deep water the ducks cannot do much injury to the eggs. 
But the fact is that they will take them from a depth of thirty 
feet. The few which escape these dangers must fall into fissures, 
or under thick weeds or be covered over with sediment; and in 
such situations it is only a very few which can have change of 
water enough to hatch. 
For the last three years New York state has been extensively 
engaged in the hatching and distribution of salmon-trout, for the 
purpose of stocking its inland waters. The processes here 
described are those in use at the New York State hatching-house, 
at Caledonia, on the grounds of Mr. A. S. Collins. The eggs 
have to be obtained, of course, from the breeding-grounds in the 
lake. In order to get them men are sent out to the grounds at 
spawning-time; arrangements are made with the fishermen, and 
men go out with them when they take up their nets. As the nets 
are hauled in, the fish which may happen to be ripe are stripped 
of their eggs. Impregnation, etc., the same as that of the brook- 
trout. The eggs, when first taken, are kept in shad-hatching- 
boxes, at some convenient point in the vicinity, until enough of 
them are gathered to send one batch to the hatching house. The 
eggs are brought either dry or in water. One hundred thousand 
eggs can be sent three days’ journey in a wide, eight-gallon milk-can 
filled with water, bj> changing the water every four hours. Upon 
arriving at the hatching-house, for the sake of saving room and of 
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