Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural LiteratureWalden, J. H.
Science
Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural Literature
Walden, J. H.
Agriculture -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
We recollect, often when a boy, of trying to catch
trout out of the brooks in October, where we could see large, beautiful
fish, lying lazily in the places from which we had caught many in the
summer, and put our bait carefully on every side of them, and they would
not bite. Then we knew not the cause: since studying the habits of fish,
we have learned that they never will bite while spawning; with trout,
this is done from the 1st to the 15th of October, some few spawning till
the last of November. Having caught two fish, male and female, take the
female in one hand, and press her abdomen gently with the other hand,
gradually moving it downward, and the eggs will be easily extruded, and
should fall into an earthen vessel of pure water. Then take the
male-fish, and go through the same process, which will press out the
spermatic fluid, which should be allowed to fall into the same vessel
with the eggs; stir up the whole together, and, after it has stood
fifteen minutes, pour off the water, put in more and stir it up, and let
it stand as before. This having been done three times, the eggs will be
thoroughly fecundated, and are ready to be deposited in the nests for
hatching. If the fish are caught before the time of beginning to spawn,
the eggs and the spermatic fluid will not be mature, and will be only
extruded by hard pressing, and failing to be fecundated, the eggs will
perish. The fluid from one male will fecundate the eggs of half a dozen
females. These eggs may be hatched in the flumes described above, though
hatching-boxes are preferable. The old fish can be returned to the
water, and may live many years and produce thousands of fish. These
fish, carefully treated and fed, will become so tame as to eat out of
your hand, like the "Naiad Queen" of Professors Ackley and Garlick, of
Cleveland, Ohio. Among all the hatching apparatus we have seen
described, we regard that of the above professors at Cleveland the best.
To these gentlemen the country is much indebted for the knowledge
derived from their zeal and success in fish culture. At the head of a
spring they built a house eight by twelve feet; in the end of the house
toward the spring they made a tank four feet wide, eight feet long, and
two feet deep; this was made of plank. Water enters the tank through a
hole near the top, and escapes through a similar one at the other end,
and is received into a series of ten successive boxes, each one a little
lower than the preceding one. These boxes were eighteen inches long,
eight inches wide, and six inches deep. These were filled to the depth
of two inches with clean sand and gravel. The impregnated eggs were
scattered among the gravel, care being exercised not to have them in
piles or masses. Clean water is necessary, as the sediment deposited by
impure water is very destructive to the eggs. If it be seen to be
collecting, it should be removed by agitating the water with a
goose-quill or soft brush, and allowing it to run off; continue this
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