The capacity of the New York State fish farm at Caledonia is 6,000,000
fry a year. The recently issued report of the fish commissioners says
that this year the ponds will be worked to their full capacity.
The supply of spawn has been greater than could be hatched there, and
supplies were sent to responsible persons in every State in the Union to
be experimented with. At the date of issuing the report the supply of
stock fish at the hatchery embraced, it was estimated, a thousand salmon
trout, of weights ranging from four to twelve pounds; ten thousand
brook trout, from half a pound to two pounds in weight; thirty thousand
California mountain trout, weighing from a quarter of a pound to three
pounds; forty-seven hundred rainbow trout, of from a quarter of a
pound to two pounds' weight; and a large number of hybrids produced by
crossing and interbreeding of different members of the salmon tribe. In
this connection reference is made to the interesting fact that hybrids
of the fish family are not barren. Spawners produced by crossing the
male brook trout with the female salmon trout cast 72,000 eggs last
fall, which hatched as readily as the spawn of their progenitors. The
value of the stock of breeding fish at the hatchery is estimated at
$20,000.
The hatch of salmon trout this season was not far from 1,200,000, and
these will be distributed chiefly in the large lakes of the interior.
About a million little brook trout were produced. The commission doubts
whether much benefit has resulted from attempting to stock small streams
that have once been good trout waters, but the temperature of which has
been changed by cutting away the forest trees that overhung them. The
best results have been attained where the waters are of considerable
extent, especially those in and bordering on the wilderness in the
northern part of the State. The experiments with California trout, have
been very successful, and it is found that the streams most suitable for
them, are the Hudson, Genesee, Mohawk, Moose, Black, and Beaver rivers,
and the East and West Canada creeks. The commission hopes to hatch
6,000,000 or 8,000,000 shad this season at a cost of about $1,000.
Concerning German carp, the commissioners find that the water at
Caledonia is too cold for this fish, but think that carp would do well
in waters further south.
The commission awaits a more liberal appropriation of money before
beginning the work of hatching at the new State fish farm at Cold
Spring, on the north side of Long Island, thirty miles out from
Brooklyn.
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