TROUT BREEDING. 37 



through a trough about twenty-four feet long and two feet 

 wide, at a depth of eighteen inches, which gives seventy- 

 two cubic feet of water. His usual supply of trout in it 

 is, or was, eight hundred, although at times he has kept 

 twelve hundred, varying in size from nine to thirteen inches. 

 If we take seven hundred and twenty fish as the minimum, 

 it gives ten trout to each cubic foot. These trout were 

 kept in thriving condition on one or two quarts of curd fed 

 to them on alternate days, and not over a dozen died during 

 the summer. If the reader takes this as a basis he can 

 make his own calculations, remembering that it is not the 

 quantity of water a fish has to live in, so much as its life- 

 giving qualities. If Mr. Desh's supply had been spread 

 out over an acre at a depth of three feet and exposed to 

 the rays of the sun and a summer atmosphere, it is doubtful 

 whether the water would have been sufficiently oxygenated 

 to sustain trout at all. Therefore, if trout are to be grown 

 as a crop, the fish culturist should be careful how he in- 

 dulges his fancy for the ornate in making his ponds. It 

 would be practicable for any farmer having a spring of low 

 summer temperature, flowing a full square inch, to have a 

 series of three small ponds, to keep fifteen hundred year- 

 lings in the first, a thousand two year old in the second, 

 and six or seven hundred three year old in the third. 



My friend Jeremiah Comfort, near Spring Mills, on the 

 Norristown Railroad, has a supply of sixteen square inches 

 (not sixteen inches square). In laying off" his ponds last 

 fall I gave the sizes as follows : Pond No. 1 ; sixty feet long, 

 eight feet wide, four inches of water at the upper, and 

 4 



