The Portland daily press., 1892-08-08
a TROUT FARM.
One Massachusetts Man Whose Swamp
Is Gold Mine.

Is Gold Mine.
Mr.. Walter L. Gilbert's trout farm,
the biggest in the country, is situated at
Plymouth, Mass, and he also owns a
cranberry bog, which yields annually
| an abundant harvest. AS soon as the
cranberries are gathered Mr.. Gilbert
turns his trout loose over the flooded bog
and in the spring their sleek forms are
harvested and sent to market. The land
thus performs dual duty, which is
without parallel in this country. There
are not many places where the condi-
tions favor such combination. Cape
| Cod cranberries are famous all over the
country, and Cape Cod trout are deli
cacies which require no Endorsement,
but Mr.. Gilbert is the only man who
can boast of raising both on the same
"garden patch"
Other fish spawn in the spring and
summer; trout do not deposit their eggs
until the fall of the year-from Oct. Is
to Dec. 1.-THE spawning season being
over by the middle of December. Wild
trout do not resume their plumpness I'M
til the last of March, because the sup
| ply of food is curtailed while the ice is
on the ponds and streams. Arti6cially
raised trout, however, fully recover
from the effects Of spawning within
month, and are as plump by the LIST of
January as are wild trout when the an
| glers are permitted to toy with them in
| April.
For ten years Mr.. Gilbert sought in
vain for the secret which would enable
him to raise trout by artificial means,
but each year he scored a failure. He
studied the subject, and every season he
learned some new trait, but the trout
absolutely refused to thrive in captivity.
| They would live a few months, and then
every one of them would turn belly up
and give up the ghost. Mr.. Gilbert
| analysed the water from his springs, and
found it as pure as the purest spring
water to be found. There was an album
dance of it, too; its temperature did not
vary dogs. the year around, and his
brook had been famous for its trout be-
fore he undertook to raise them arti-
fcially. He had about given up in de-
spair when one day he noticed gas bub-
bles rising in the water, and the thought
flashed across his mind that decaying
vegetation was the murderer of his trout.
He had flowed new land and had cleared
only the channel of the original brook.
He Immediately drained his ponds,
cleaned the bottom of all vegetation,
sprinkled thereon liberal quantity Of
sand and the next year had the satisfac-
ton of raising as pretty 'crop" Of
trout as one would wish to see.
The process of raising trout Is simple
enough, if one only knows how and If
all the conditions are favorable. Let no
one think he can raise trout simply be-
cause brook runs through his back
yard. OF course the brook is the most
important feature of the plant, but it
must be fed by living springs so numer-
Gus that the water will remain at an
even temperature the year around. 1t
must not freeze even in the coolest win
ter weather or show an increase of
more than dogs. even in the hottest Of
summer days. A brook that fulflls
these conditions and whose water is as
nearly pure as spring water can be de-
veloped into a bonanza for the man
through whose territory it runs, espe-
cially if he control the headwaters
thereof It can be made to yield more
gold and silver in proportion to the out
lay of capital than the richest mine, and
will at the same time furnish rare sport
for the fisherman.
Given suitable brook, the next step
toward establishing trout farm is
Matching house. Mr.. Gilberts place at
the Old Colony trout ponds will serve
as a good example. The building is
long one story structure with small
windows at either end, which furnish
only enough light to reveal the hatch
ways. There are more than dozen
long troughs about foot wide and
twenty feet long, the number in any
establishment being regulated by the
scale upon which the business is con-
Quoted. The spring water is led through
big main from the headwaters of the
brook, distance Of about 100 yards,
and liberated in big tank at the upper
end of the Matching house. This aque-
duct keeps the water free from all con-
termination. From the tank the water
is led through pipes into each of the
hatchways.
Extra precautions are used to keep all
impurities from the spawn, double filters
being placed over the nozzle of each
faucet. The water flows through the
hatchways with depth of three or four
inches and empties into the main brook
below the Matching house. Along the
sides of each hatchway, about two
inches from the bottom, are cleats upon
which the frames holding the eggs are
suspended. The eggs are thus kept sus-
pended in the running water, and the
possibility of their being covered by i'm
purities is reduced to minimum. The
spawn frames are covered with coarse
netting, each mesh of which is wide
enough to furnish a secure resting place
for one egg and prevent it from touch
ing the other egg, a necessary precau-
ton in the propagation of trout.
r,ovica Il, the trout breeding busi-