Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-07-22
FISH-HATCHING.
A Visit to Cold Spring Harb0f, Ions
leland The Success and Advantages Of
Eish Culture.

Fish Culture.
Going from the depot, at Cold Spring
Long Island, toward The harbor, tn
road winds down hill through dwarfe,
forest runs alongside a whispering littl
brook, and affords glimpses here AM
there OF broad sheets Of placid waite
frincei by tangled thickets. mill il
pissed and several pretty residences
Then a. a sudden turn, beautiful view
| opens out Of the full width of the val
leg, terminating in the harbor and tn
Sound beyond. Here Is the New Yorl
| STATE Fish Hatchery, two little houses
From the open doors Of both houses
float continually aqueous sounds, rip
! pies, gur,les splashes, and diminutivt
waterfalls. Looking inside one sees big
waterproof boots moving about, with big
men in them, Who do miraculous things
in the way Of squeezing themselves
among long black troughs, through
which crystalline currents are constantly
cour iug swiftly In the face Of the hill
is "a roof covering Superintendent Frank
Matters ocean. He pumps his ocean
up there and keeps it on tap for the
Matching of salt water fishes.
The superintendent is a notable man
sturdy, bushy-browed, with a hearty
voice. sparkling eyes, camping-out COM
plexion, and an air of just having arrived
from somewhere and being about to
start back in minute. He courteously
opens theample flood-gates of his knowl-
edge about fish and their systematized
production.
The man who knows anything about
fish that is not already known to Mr..
Na.her would be difficult to And, for he
is not Only quite familiar with all the
astounding polysyllabic names that seem
to grow in reversed proportion to the
size of the fish. but is intimate with the
wearers of the names. knows their
habits and where to find them.
In answer to your correspondent, Mr..
Nather said: 1--WE have here facilities
for Matching much fewer eggs than we
should have The capacity of the estab-
Hshment should be doubled at least.
The practical usefulness Of this
method of charging our food supply has
now been demonstrated beyond question,
and il is really a matter of serious inter-
est to all the people Of the State that
this hatchery should be so developed
as to get the greatest possible good from
H. This is surely quite reasonably
There is no place in the land SO well
adapted by nature as this Is for hatch
cry. We have an abundant, never-fail-
ing supply of cold fresh water, sufficient
to keep our thirty-two Matching troughs
full all the year through, il we needed
them SO. It comes from natural springs
in that hill, SO surprisingly high up that
it is constant wonder to me how those
springs are fed. The swift current that
its fall supplies is just what we want in
certain stages of the Matching processes.
"Then by means OF a pumping engine
we can have equally handy an ample sup
ply of pure salt water drawn at high
tide as required, and stored in that reser-
voir. Or, at least, we can do SO when
the intense cold does not freeze the
water solid in the pipes and burst them
as it did last winter. spelling at one fell
blow our most interesting. and, up to
that time highly successful, Matching Of
some 1000. 600 cod eggs"
At the side of the lane are wood-bound
milk cans-the reservoir in which myraids
of tiny fishes are sent away to stock
lakes, brooks, creeks, rivers, and bays Of
the State.
HATCHING TROUT.
Nearly all the Matching is done In
Winter" said MIR. Mather. "Trout, in
which there is most popular interest,
begin spawning in November, and do
not get through until January. We get
eggs here from some large breeding
trout that we keep in those ponds out
side for the purpose, and also from the
hatchery at Caledonia, from Maine, and
from Europe.
change from the flabby condition in
xuhio k hAx, q I'D hvy hn Ia
fish, detach themselves from the bottom
of the pan in which they were gathered.
and grow larger and quite hard. Then
they are washed and spread upon wire
cloth Matching trays, the interstices in
which are large enough for the young
fry, as Matched, to drop through, leaving
the shells on the tray.
Throughout the process of Matching,
which takes from sixty to eighty days,
according to the temperature of the
water, the eggs must be carefully tended
every day to keep them free from sedi-
ment, to have the temperature of the
water as cold as possible, and to reg
ulate the current over them just right.
While Matching is going on the water
only covers the eggs to the depth of an
inch. but when the young fry have all
appeared, its depth is increased to five
inches Each little trout, when Matched,
has an abdominal sack of nutriment,
larger than himself, which he gradually
absorbs. When its yellow bulk is all
gone and he looks like a small semi
transparent pin, not quite an inch long,
he is Immediately hungry, and begins
looking for food
That is the time when he should be
put out in brook somewhere, to look
out for himself, and where there will be
no sunfish, pickerel, or other bigger fish
to look out for him. It takes him forty
or fifty days to exhaust the magazine
Of provisions with which he comes into
the world.
With good feeding, at the end Of his
first year he should have grown to be |
from four to five inches in length. At |
2 years of age, the trout should be seven |
or eight inches long, and at 3 years,
when his weight is from quarter to
half pound, hebecomes an object of in |
terest to the scientific angler.
"Some female trout spawn when only I
2 years old, but their eggs are not num-
erous At years. one will yield from
400 to 500, and occasionally as high as
/ 900 eggs Ithas been affirmed that
trout will yield 1000 eggs to every |
pound of its weight, but my experience
does not warrant me in expecting any
thing like so much, II we get 1880 |
eggs from a two-pound or even a two
and half pound trout, We think we
are doing we'll.
1--WE have had here this season, or
have now. salmon-trout eggs, young
trout fry, and eggs Of the German brown
trout.
DIFFERENT METHODS OF HATcHING.
"The manner Of obtaining the eggs of /
,ther fishes and impregnating them is /
the same as with the trout, but the |
OF Matching differ very widely.
"Some eggs-those Of the cod, for |
float. Shad eggs are SO /
nicely balanced that they will just keep |
ID the bottom in moving water and sink
% it where the water is still. Salmon |
Ind trout eggs lie on the bottom. free
rom each other. The eggs Of the |