TROUT BREEDING. 83 



told to me by others, and this is all I can do, as it is yet 

 a branch of industry, which I might say, is " in embryo ;" 

 but I am so well convinced of the profitableness of a large 

 and well-organized system, that I am about engaging in it 

 again, with Mr. A. J. Beaumont, near New Hope, Bucks 

 county, Penna. Mr. Beaumont has a spring on his property 

 known as the Ingham Spring, which flows about, or over, 

 three thousand gallons per minute. I have alluded to it 

 in a note at the bottom of a preceding page. He has ample 

 room and favorable ground for the ponds, and I do not 

 think it at all unlikely with such advantages, that twenty- 

 five or thirty thousand trout, averaging a pound, can be 

 taken from the third, or it may be a fourth pond, after the 

 enterprise has been in operation three or four years. Of 

 course, the question of food is the most important. In 

 this connection, I would remark, that Mr. Ainsworth told 

 me a few days ago, that he kept an account of the expense 

 of feeding his fifteen hundred fish on beef's liver for one 

 year, and that the amount so expended was only seven 

 dollars and a half. But in his neighborhood, he can buy 

 a beefs liver for ten cents. He fed his trout two livers 

 per week as a general rule, chopping up a quart or so for 

 each meal, but in --extremely warm weather and in winter 

 he gave it to them but sparingly. 



Growth of Trout. I have already said, or intimated, 

 that trout kept in ponds will average a pound, when a few 

 months over three years old, if well fed. I am confident 

 from my own experience, that the allowance of curd just 

 given, for the different ages, will produce that weight. 



