2l6 



Brown Trout 



When a farmer rents a piece of land for grazing he knows how 

 many sheep or cattle it will pasture, and that if he put on more than 

 the proper number they will not grow. He also knows that if he 

 introduce too few they will become fat and too lazy to eat up all 

 the pasture, and he will thus lose part of the money paid for the 

 pastureland. If the proprietor or the tenant of a loch would consider 

 the matter in the same way as the farmer, he would obtain full value 

 out of his lochs, be saved a deal of grumbling, and find life more 

 pleasant. 



For years I have had the management of several lochs, and 



FlG. 219. i6-lb. Loch Rannoch Trout. May 1903. 



when the trout grow too large and do not rise I introduce more trout, 

 and soon the large ones begin to rise more freely. If, on the other 

 hand, the trout are too small, I net them or deprive them of part 

 of the spawning-ground. In constructing new lochs one should 

 endeavour to have as much shallow water as possible, but not shallow 

 enough to allow weeds to grow in it. The best depth is from 5 to 

 9 feet ; beyond 1 2 feet food becomes scarce, and trout do not rise 

 well in deep water. Attention to those matters will ensure the 

 success of a loch and save much unnecessary expense. 



The nature of the feeding has such an effect on the appearance of 

 trout that no two lochs or streams in Great Britain contain trout which 

 are exactly similar. My experience of hundreds of lochs and rivers 



