TROUT CULTURE. 749 



TROUT CULTURE. 



By FEED MATHER. 



|~N the early days of fish culture, which for many years was only 

 J- trout culture, the statement was often made that any farmer 

 who had a small spring of cool water could, within a few years, 

 realize enormous profits from it, and that an acre of water was 

 worth more than an acre of land. Those of us who went into the 

 business a quarter of a century ago found much to learn, and 

 many dropped out discouraged. The writer bought a farm in 

 Monroe County, New York, in 1868, and made ponds below a fine 

 spring ; and after some failures, due to ignorance for there was 

 then no literature of the subject he began to succeed in raising 

 many fish, only to find, after raising them, that they had cost more 

 than they were worth, because there was no available food near, 

 and it required a man to drive fourteen miles to the city of 

 Rochester twice or more per week for food. To-day we know 

 that something more than a good spring of cool water of about 

 50 F. is necessary, and also that some acres of water may be 

 worth more than some land, but that so many local and other 

 conditions enter into the calculation that, as a general statement, 

 the comparison is not true. To-day there are several successful 

 trout farms where the fish are raised for market at a profit, and 

 in all of them there are large, never-failing springs of cool water 

 and cheap food, as well as intelligent management. There are 

 other important considerations in choosing the location of a trout 

 farm, such as a proper amount of fall to the water in order to 

 control it and give it aeration between the ponds and a formation 

 that will allow all surface water to be led aside and not to enter 

 the ponds. A sudden thaw with frozen ground may destroy the 

 work of years, and in summer the surface water brings leaves and 

 trash, which clog screens and either burst or overflow them. 



The first thing to be considered is whether the trout farmer 

 wishes to merely hatch his fish and turn them into a suitable lake 

 or pond where they will find their own food and where he can 

 take a few for sport and market, and perhaps let anglers fish it 

 for a fixed sum, or whether he prefers to raise his fish by hand in 

 small pools. 



The first method is the simplest, involving the least care, but, 

 if the conditions are favorable, not so profitable as the other. One 

 is like keeping a few fowls that pick up what they can, and 

 the other like poultry breeding, with this exception : poultry will 

 not eat their young, while trout will devour their fellows which 

 are smaller. A trout under a year old feeds mainly on insects 

 and their larvse in a state of nature, but a large trout of two 



