This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopędia. 16 volumes complete..
The following year Joseph Remy, a fisherman of La Bresse, in the Vosges, apparently without knowledge of the labors of others, resorted to artificial impregnation as an adjunct to his business, restocking the Moselle and other streams from which he gained his livelihood. His operations, brought to the knowledge of Prof. J. J. C. Coste of the college de France in 1849, gave rise to the modern industry of fish culture. The art has been practised chiefly with brook trout, salmon, shad, salmon trout, and whitefish.-In breeding trout, it is usual to have a series of at least three ponds connected by raceways: the first for the young fish after they are taken from the hatching trough or nursery, until they are 18 or 20 months old; the second for the same fish for the next 12 months; and the third, from which they are taken for the table, for the same brood until they are 3 1/2 years old. As the last pond is vacated it is occupied by the younger fish from No. 2, and so on. An oblong pond is preferable to a circular one; and if its width is one tenth of its length, it is more convenient for manipulation, and retains its coldness better, from the more rapid passage of the water through it.
Young trout delighting in shallow water, the first pond should not be more than 6 in. deep at the upper and 2 ft. at the lower end. The bottom should be covered 2 or 3 in. deep with coarse gravel. The second pond, which should be from one third to one half longer and 2 or 3 ft, wider than the first, may have a more uniform depth, averaging 3 ft., and containing four or five times as much water. At the entrance to the raceway it should be of a good depth and free from gravel. The third pond should contain two or three times as much water as the second, having an average depth of 5 ft. They should be provided with a flume at the bottom, for the purpose of draining them if required. The raceways, which are the spawning places of the fish, should have a depth of 5 or 6 in., a width of from 2 to 3 1/2 ft., and a length of from 20 to 6O ft., according to the size of the ponds and the supply of water. The sides should be of board an inch thick and 12 in. wide, and, to furnish material for the trout to make their nests, the bottom should be covered with coarse gravel. The ends are closed with wire screens to keep the fish in the ponds allotted to them. The raceway should be so constructed that the water will flow through in a gentle current.
The fish not spawning while in the first pond, a raceway is not necessary, but the water should be led in through two or more shallow rills from a foot to 2 or 3 ft. wide. A uniformly low temperature of the water being requisite, and for hatching purposes clearness of stream, a deep spring is the best source of supply. For hatching, the water should never be above 54°; 46° or 47° is perhaps the most favorable temperature. The latter part of August, about two months before the spawning season commences, is the proper time for transferring the fish from one pond to another. In this country the hatching apparatus is usually a wooden trough, divided into compartments by transverse strips, by which the force of the current is broken, the water flowing gently over them. The bottom is covered to the depth of about an inch with clean gravel about the size of peas, the water, which must be filtered, being about an inch deep above. A supply which would fill a pipe an inch square, divided into four jets and flowing through as many troughs, is ordinarily used for 120,000 or 130,-000 eggs. The hatching troughs should be enclosed, a house of rough boards being sufficient, which should be so arranged as to admit the light without sunshine.
With the supply of water and for the number of eggs just mentioned, the usual proportions are as follows: the filtering tank of strong plank extending at right angles across the upper ends of the troughs, 20 in. wide and 18 in. deep, admitting the water through two or three flannel screens; the troughs, having a fall from the upper to the lower end of not more than an inch, from 12 to 16 ft, long, 10 to 14 in. wide, and 6 in. deep, divided into from 10 to 14 nests, the upper one being generally filled with gravel through which the water is again filtered; the nurseries below the troughs, at least 16 in. deep, 20 in. wide, and 4 ft. long, so arranged that the water shall be 4 or 5 in. deep at the entrance from the troughs and only 2 in. deep at the outlet, and having their bottoms covered with gravel. At Huningen (Huningue), in Alsace, the French adopted trays or troughs of earthenware, 25 in. long, 5 in. wide, and 4 in. dee]), for hatching. The eggs are placed on grilles, formed of small parallel rods of glass arranged in a wooden frame resting on projections on each side of the tray, a little below the surface of the water, the bars being near enough together to hold the eggs, while dirt and the young fish when hatched fall between them and are removed through an aperture in the bottom of the tray.
These trays are placed in shallow vessels or cisterns, each cistern containing several of them. Another French apparatus is a series of troughs arranged one a little above the other like steps, the water entering from a small jet at one end of the upper trough and passing out at the other, traversing each trough in succession. A box, about 2 ft. long, 18 in. wide, and 6 in. deep, which may be fastened in the raceway and allowed to float in the current, or placed in a spring, is also used for hatching. The bottom may be of board strewn with gravel to receive the eggs, holes being bored in each end below the water line for the passage of the current; or it may be composed of fine wire gauze, which should be painted. When the trout enter the raceways and begin to make their nests, preparation should be made to obtain their spawn. The fish are taken from the water, and the milt of the male and spawn of the female are expressed into a pan holding about six quarts, and not more than a quarter full of clear water. If the milt is expressed into the water, and the eggs are afterward added, the process of impregnation will be facilitated. The fish are held as near the surface of the water as possible while the hand is passed gently along the abdomen, the spawn and milt dropping into the pan below.
 
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