Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-01

. ruminant mood as he sat in his wagon
IN the Easton Fish Market the other day.
He said:
Yes, there are experlmenters besides
me In my neighbOrhood. There is just as
Dig fools as people thought 1 was when l
Iattened my terrapins on Maryland bis
CUTS n went to raising 'tadpoles from
oullfrog eggs. For one there's my neigh
Dor, John W~illoughby.
know what Johns ADDING? No?
Well, I'll tell you.
He has read a good deal about hatch
Ing shad and other fish from the eggs in
the roe. Being of an inQuiring turn of
mine he went around to the Matching
stations. especially the one at Coward's,
on the T~uckahoe, and looked about to see
now 1t was done. He found out and
thought he could do it better. And what
90 you think he's doing now? Don't
know?
well, I'll tell you. John willoughby
IS actually setting his puddle ducks on
shad eggs and is Matching out fish that
way, TOO, they say He commenced it
tnree years ago., but done it so secret only
Two or three knowed about it, and they
were bound up not to tell.
ne taxes his duck eggs, makes a little
hole in each end. and blows out the stuff
inside of it. like boys do when they make
a collection OF eggs. He knows more how
. ' EAAo $3.50 lila the state ISL.
raising officers do. and always has on
hand plenty Of shad eggs ready to set.
When a duck want to set he takes ten
empty duck eggs and fills them with fish
eggs, which have been miltered and kept
In water, and puts some water in with
them and wakes up the pin holes, and
puts them in a nest under a duck. He
has studied the thing so we'll. John
W1lloughby has, he can tell to a day when
the fish eggs will hatch. Anyhow, he
claims he can tell by holding the duck
eggs up to his ear if the fish eggs are
Matched. When they are he opens one of
the pin holes to give them air and puts
IN a little more water and let's them alone
for ~ hours. when they are big enough to
go into his shad pond. He says a poor
Matching will give a thousand shad to the
egg, or ten thousand to the setting.
H has sold none yet. He will give
away to any one who has a fish 'quarium
a duck egg full of shad fry. He sent half
a dozen to ladies in Easton last spring
FOR 'Quarium use. | expect you saw
some. You die? Then you know what I
am talking about.
Il expect John Willoughby will be able
after a while to supply the state with all
the fish 1t wants for planting. if he gets
a patent on the nest he has invented for
the duck when she is Matching fish.
They'll come cheaper to the state and
he'll make a fortune. His wife uses their
meat in making cake and pie crust. When
his business gets so big he will have to
use a million or SO duck eggs a season,
he expects to can their substance, and is
now experimenting on a process to do it
nice and cheap. See what a grand thing
this is going to be for old Caroline, don't
you? He expects to raise the Matching
of one duck egg to 5000 or even 10, 600
fish.
Some do say he has an old duck that
v-S10 rrot ifN Hs~ hal ~~~ ~~I A-1t
among the thousands and thousands of
young shad he has there her own hatch
ing, and that her own brood knows her,
and when she quacks for them they will
come to her and hover under her wings.
But l don't believe this. 1t is one Of them
lies people will get up on a nan who is
doing something nobody never tried to
do before, and getting along we'll with
it.
but one thing may come out OF it, I
bet you amt thought Of. Suppose he
puts into one duck egg; shell the g of
the shad, the perch and the rock. And
suppose he does this the next year and
the next with their roe. Do you suppose
they will always hatch out shad and
perch and rock from the same setting?
Not a bit Of it. 1t may be the first year,
or the second, but the time will come
when a mongrel fish will be Matched, a
new species, a kind of high-bred, as it
SiS VIVA 81 ~ SACp A&o oiS -
tell, but just look at the possibilities.
There is another thing he Is trying-but
say nothing about it yet. He is actually
caponizing his shad at two years old, Or,
rather, trying the experiment.
Yes, it is possible he may get a cross
between a duck and a fish. l can't tell.
l know many things John Willoughby
can do; what he can't do I don't know.
He once crossed long-legged with short
legged chickens, until he go Il breed born
with one long leg and one short one,
which could not scratch in his garden,
because when they stood upon either leg
to scratch with the other they would fall
over. Yes, he was the man that done
that. So you have heard the story be-
fore.
Excuse me. I can't give you a drawing
and description Of The fish-duck nest.
That's Johns secret until he gets it
patented"
And Henry Carroll. having sold his fish
and spun his yarn, turned Desdemona's
head Dover-BridgeWard.
TIL ETY GOT N(tTTCE