Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-04-24

of porus wood through which the air
enters the water OF the can In several
small streams, IL such term is allowable,
causing perfect aeration, and permitting
the transportation OF the fish for hum
dreds of miles without changing the
water, so long as the air-pump Is not
allowed to stop and no food is put into
the cans to contaminste the water. Ice Is
used in large. quantities to keep the tenn
perature OF the water in the cans just
right.
and will stand journey OF a week with
out suffering. On the other hand, bass
will, at the end of three days without
food, begin devouring one another.
The crew of the car live aboard it, eat
ing and sleeping there, the births being
arranged above the lockers, the whole be-
ing a comfortable place in which to live.
ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION.
While, as has been stated, some ponds
and lakes in the country were stocked
before anything was known about fish
culture or before any real successful
method of transporting live fish overland
in large numbers had been devised, no
attempts at stocking lakes and waters OF
great magnitude were made. And while
the United States to-day has one OF the
most complete equipments In the world
for transporting live fish, large and
small, the equipment would be of little
value did the hatcheries, scattered about
the country, not exist. 1t is equally true,
OF course, that without the transport
tation facilities, the hatcheries would be
OF no real worth, for by the primitive
methods formerly used to stock waters
OF the country, 1t would take altogether
too long time to secure load for one OF
the cars.
At an early date persons interested In
fish and fishing became aware OF the fact
that 1t would be a great benefit II some
means of artificially cultivating fish
could be known. Perhaps 1t would be
which the young fish could be given the
constant care from the day OF Matching
until they were capable of caring for
themselves that would produce the max
imum results, would be better than arti-
fetal propagation. The propagation Is
surely the work of nature assisted, so far
as possible, by the hand of man. These
men, many of them we'll versed in the
siences and knowledge OF nature, studied
on the subject, not for days and weeks,
but for months and years, until eventu-
ally the problem was solved.
STRIPPING FEMALE FISH.
In the work of cultivating fish, the first
step is to gather the eggs from the females.
This is done in practically the same way
at all hatcheries. Nets or seiues, or sta
tionary pounds, are set in some favorable
locality, and the fish are taken out and to
the hatchery. Here the females are
picked out and stripped of the eggs-that
is the eggs are removed from the fish.
The operation is about as follows:
The spawn-taker, clad in water proof
clothing and wearing wooden mittens,
pan holding about ten quarts. female
fish Is dipped from one of the floating
pens in which the fish are confined, and
brought to the operator, who seizes her
by the tail with his right hand, places the
head beneath his left arm with the back
auppermost, the head highest and the vent
directly over the pan. The eggs flow out
into the pan in a continuous stream
Toward the end the flow slackens and the
operator must assist nature by slight
pressure of the left hand. The number of
eggs secured from a single fish is large, sc a
salmon often giving as many as 5000 to
10000 eggs.
The work Of stripping the fish is done
in the fall, and the eggs are kept in the
hatcheries all winter, being carefully
watched and not Matched until March or
April. Alter the eggs have been removed
from the female fish, a male is captured,
and milt deposited on them, after which
they are taken to the hatchery to be cared
for during the winter. This caring for
means the constant watching for and re-
moval OF dead eggs and otherwise seeing
that the eggs are not spoiled.
The matter of food for the young fish
is an important one and requires much
work and careful attention. Chopped
liver forms one Of the universal foods for
the young fish, but different hatcheries
use different foods. At the Craig brook
hatchery in Orland, where the sea salmon
are Matched, many maggots are used.
After the fry has Matched, it is necessary
that they be given the best of care, for
therein depends the success OF the fish
cuiturist's work. II the young are
neglected, but a minimum number reach
maturity, while good care brings the
maximum to the age where they can be
liberated in the waters OF lakes and ponds.
To accomplish this it is necessary to have
large volume Of fresh, pure water, highly
aerated-that is, water containing large
amount of air. That is why it is always
arranged to have the hatcheries located
on the banks OF rapidly streams
and the troughs are so arranged that the
water, in passing from one to the other.
always makes small waterfall. The rea-
son is that rapidiy-running or falling