94 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



Altogether, it is a perfect gem. Nothing has been ne- 

 glected, and those who have the facilities, the good taste, 

 and the enterprise to follow Mr. Ainsworth's example, 

 would be greatly aided by paying him a visit. He will, we 

 run no risk in assuming, take great pleasure in giving them 

 the benefit of his experience. 



" It is, so far as we are advised, an unsettled matter how 

 many fish can live in a given quantity of water. Mr. Ains- 

 worth has placed nearly eleven hundred trout in his pond, 

 and some additions have been made by the process of arti- 

 ficial fecundation; and this process he will continue to 

 follow until his pond is sufficiently stocked. If it were 

 possible to protect all the spawn deposited by the small 

 number of trout now left in our streams, we should quickly 

 see them restocked to their full capacity. But it is known 

 that even under the most favorable circumstances, only a 

 few of the eggs hatch, and of those which do, much of the 

 product is devoured by snakes, water-fowl, and the larger 

 fish. It would be a very easy matter to resort to artificial 

 fecundation, by which an immense quantity of the most 

 beautiful and delicate fish known in American waters could 

 be raised. 



" But to the sport.' Both bait and fly were taken the 

 instant they touched the water, and had a hundred hooks 

 been upon each line, each one would have had its victim. 

 They were of various sizes when put into the pond two 

 years ago. Those of three years, are now plump pounders. 

 A majority are of three-fourths and half a pound. Mr. 

 Ainsworth knows their ages as well as he does those of his 



