Various

“ When young salmon or trout first begin to feed they are quite unable to swallow full-grown maggots. Small ones are obtained for them by putting a large quantity of fly spawn with a small quantity of meat, the result being that the maggots soon begin to crowd each other and the surplus is worked off into the lower box before attaining great size. No attempt is, however, made to induce the young fish to swallow even the smallest maggots until they have been fed a while an chopped liver. ”

“ Some one hundred million young salmon have been artificially hatched and distributed in the waters of the Dominion during the last few years, and new government hatcheries are constantly being erected. ”

“ Just before the floor is laid bare, the salmon destined for the breeding works are dipped out carefully with a cloth bag or a very fine bag-net and placed in transporting cars or boats, rigged specially for the purpose, sunk deep in the water, which fills them, passing in at two grated openings above, and passing out at two others astern, and covered with a net to prevent escape. In a boat 13 or 14 feet long (on the bottom) we put 10 or 15 salmon, to be towed a distance of 7 miles. If the water is cool, twice as many can go safely, but there must be no delay. ”

“ The existence of a gravelly bottom in the inclosure must be considered a positive disadvantage, inasmuch as it affords the fish a ground on which they may lay their eggs before they can be caught; but the danger of such an occurrence is less as the bounds of the inclosure are more contracted and the facilities for capturing the fish are better.
As to the number of fish to a given area, I think we have never approached the maximum. I should have no hesitation in putting 1000 salmon in the inclosure at Dead Brook, which covers an area of less than 3 acres. ”

“ Another theory is that the salmon of each river, as they arrive at its mouth after descending from its headwaters, go out to sea sufficiently far to find the conditions of temperature and food which suit them, and there they remain, separate from the salmon of other rivers, until it is time for them to return to fresh water. ”

“ The materials used for the enticing of the flies and the nourishment of the maggots have been various. Stale meat from the markets has been perhaps the leading article, but we have also used such parts of the butcher's offal and of the horse carcasses as were not well adapted to chopping; fish, fresh dried or pickled; fish pomace from herring-oil works, and any animal refuse that came to hand.
Fresh or slightly tainted meat has been used to greater extent than any other material, and has proved itself equally good with any. ”

“ For use in feeding fish in a pond a box containing a series of shelves, down which the maggots slowly crawl, was found sufficiently useful to be retained.
It is the common practice to feed all meat raw except the lights, which chop better if boiled first, except also occasional lots of meat that are on the point of becoming tainted and are boiled to save them. All meats fed direct to the fish are first passed through a chopping machine. The machine known as the "Enterprise" is the one now in use. It forces the meat through perforated steel plates. ”

“ In the Dutch "Economist" of 1874 I gave a description of the fish breeding establishment of the State of New York, and therein I mentioned the United States salmon-breeding establishment on the Penobscot, principally for the penning of the salmon from June till breeding time. As you are likely aware, the Dutch Government pays yearly $4,800 to salmon breeders for young salmon delivered in spring, at the rate of 10 cents for yearlings, and not quite (4/5) one dollar per hundred for those that are about rid of the umbilical sac, and ready to shift for themselves. ”

“ The fish ways are generally in good condition (although some improvements will be made) , and fish have easy access to headwaters, That large numbers go up and spawn is evidenced by the large numbers of smolt seen at the head of tidal water in the spring, many being taken by boys with the rod. I have reason to expect that our government will hereafter distribute annually in the Saint Croix a goodly number of young salmon which, together with the contributions of the Maine commissioners will soon make this fish again abundant. Alewives are very abundant and apparently increasing every year. ”

“ From the collecting headquarters to Orland village, a distance of about 5 miles, the route is in brackish water, and the tow is favored by the flood tide. At Orland is a dam which is surmounted by means of a lock, and thence, two miles further to Dead Brook, the route is through the tide less fresh water of Narramissic River. The sudden change from salt to fresh water does not appear to trouble the fish except when the weather is very hot and the fresh water is much the warmest. The cars are towed directly into the inclosure, where the fish are at once liberated. ”

“ In 1891 a few thousand yearling salmon were placed in New York waters tributary to the sea. The possibility of the survival and growth of some of these and of the large early colonies prompts this reference to the matter and suggests the publication of the accompanying figure of the species, to afford a basis for distinguishing the two kinds of salmon, which closely resemble each other. ”

“ The occupation of the country by Europeans introduced a new set of antagonistic forces which began even in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to operate against the natural increase and maintenance of the salmon and other migratory fishes. ”

“ It is still found most convenient to obtain the stock of breeding salmon, as in the early years of the enterprise, from about a dozen weirs in the Penobscot River along the shores of the island of Verona. The fishermen are provided with dip-nets or bags with which to capture the fish in their weirs, with tanks or cars in which to transport them to the collecting headquarters, whither they are brought immediately after capturing, about low water. ”

“ In the pound-net fishery of the northern coast of New Jersey the recent capture of salmon has been a subject of much interest to the local fishermen and of considerable importance to fish-culturists and naturalists. ”

“ Pickled alewives, freshened out in water, have been found to answer fairly well, when other materials are lacking, at least to give growth to maggots otherwise started. Fish pomace has not thus far given satisfaction, but seems worthy of further trial.
It is commonly necessary to expose meat but a single day to obtain sufficient fly spawn; the larvae are hatched and active the next day, except in cool weather, and they attain their full growth in two or three days. ”

“ A single net would not retain its strength through a whole season, the bottom rotting away and letting the fish out, unless before the autumn was far advanced its position were reversed, the stronger part that had been above water being placed now at the bottom. This method was therefore rather expensive and not perfectly secure. The wooden racks were costly and heavy to handle, but quite secure.
The salmon placed in this inclosure had to be carted in tanks of water overland about a mile in addition to transportation in floating cars from 3 to 5 miles ”

“ In the above methods maggots are produced and used in considerable numbers, sometimes as many as a bushel in a day. Through September, 1893, although the weather and some other circumstances were not very favorable, the average daily production was a little over half a bushel.
They are eagerly eaten by the fish, which appear to thrive on them better than on dead meat. Having great tenacity of life, if not snapped up immediately by the fish they remain alive for a day or two, and, as they wriggle about on the bottom, are almost certain to be finally eaten ”

“ If the open-air troughs are in order--and we aim to have them so--the eggs are counted out into lots of 2,000 or 4,000 each and placed before hatching in their summer quarters. The water is at that time very cold, the development of the alevins is slow, and it is not until the latter part of May that the yolk sack is fully absorbed. June 1 is, therefore, the date when feeding is ordinarily begun. The growth of the fish is at first slow, the water being still cool, but is accelerated as the summer passes away. ”

“ Fresh fish is very attractive to the flies, and when in just the proper condition may be equally good with fresh meat, but some kinds of fish are too oily, for instance, alewives and herring, and all sorts thus far tried are apt to be too watery. ”

“ The station of the U. S. Fish Commission at Craig Brook was founded in 1889, on the same site where, in 1871, the first attempt at the artificial spawning of salmon in the United States was made. This site had been selected by the commissioners of fisheries of the States of Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for that experiment because of its proximity to the salmon fisheries of the Penobscot River and the facilities presented for the maturing of the spawn that might be obtained. ”

“ The difference of level between the source and mouth of the brook is about 190 feet. The sharpest descent is just above the hatchery and rearing troughs, which therefore receive well-aerated water. The conformation of the ground offers good facilities for the distribution and utilization of the water.
The leading motive in the foundation of this station was the desire to apply to the Atlantic salmon the system of rearing fish to the age of at least several months before liberating them. ”

“ In winter such fish as are carried through are fed but once a day. The cleaning of the troughs has been a troublesome matter, and the subject of much study and experiment, but nothing more satisfactory has been found than the following practice: The troughs are all to be cleaned daily--not all at one time, but as time is found for it in the intervals of other work. ”

“ The offensive odors of decaying flesh may be largely overcome by covering it, on putting it away in the boxes, after the visits of the flies, with pulverized earth, and it is not improbable that by this or some other method the business may be made almost wholly inoffensive, but in its present stage of development it is too malodorous to admit of practice in any place where there are human habitations or resorts within half a mile of the spot where the maggots are grown. ”

“ As remarked above, only flesh-eating maggots have yet been tried. It would be well worth while to experiment with the larvae of other species, such as the house fly, the stable fly, etc. There is also a white maggot known to grow in heaps of seaweed. Should the rate of growth of either of these species be found to be satisfactory they might be substituted for the flesh maggots with advantage.
Occasional use has been made of fresh fish for direct feeding. ”

“ Similar striking results may also be anticipated in all the more northern streams of the east coast, including the Housatonic, Connecticut, and Merrimac, in which salmon were at one time found in abundance and are now taken in small numbers, if the ascent of the adult fish to the headwaters for the purpose of spawning is permitted and if sufficiently extensive fish-cultural operations are continued. ”

“ In December, 1891, a salmon weighing 28 pounds was caught on a cod trawl line set near Halfway Rock, off Salem Harbor, Mass.; Mr. William Dennett, of Gloucester, who secured the fish, reports that he sold it for $46. Mr. Samuel Wiley, of Gloucester, in September 1893, caught a salmon at sea off Gloucester on a trawl line fished for hake. These are the only instances that have been reported of the capture of salmon on a hook in the vicinity of Gloucester. ”

“ When thrown into the water after chopping it breaks up into fibers to such an extent that it is not very satisfactory, and I do not suppose we shall use it in the future, unless in a coarsely chopped form for the food of large fish. ”

“ The meat is readily eaten by all fishes, and appears to form an excellent diet. Being more buoyant than any other article tried, it sinks slower in the water and gives the fish more time to seize it before it reaches the bottom, a consideration of considerable practical importance. ”

“ The breeders get their eggs from Germany from Schuster in Freiburg, and from Gloser in Basel; but complain always that the eggs are from too young individuals, that there is always too much loss in transportation, that the eggs are so weak that after the fish have come out there is great mortality in the fry, &c. ”

“ The maggots thus far employed are exclusively flesh-eaters, mainly those of two undetermined species of flies--the first and most important being a small smooth, shining green or bluish-green fly occurring at the beginning of summer and remaining in somewhat diminished numbers until October, and the other a large rough, steel-blue fly that makes its appearance later and in autumn becomes the predominating species, having such hardiness as to continue the reproduction of its kind long after the occurrence of frosts sufficiently severe to freeze the ground. ”

“ In outline the procedure is to expose the flesh of animals in a sheltered location during the day, and when well stocked with the spawn of the flies to place it in boxes which are set away in the "fly house" to develop; when fully grown the maggots are taken out and fed at once to the fish. ”