138 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



trusting to a natural stream for the propagation of trout ; so 

 that, in order to raise trout profitably, we have got to depend 

 upon artificial culture and artificial ponds. 



Mr. Andrus, of Rockville. What age have trout been 

 known to attain ? 



Mr. Hodges. I have never known one to be over eight 

 years old. It may be that they live longer. It is very dif- 

 ficult for us to tell, because trout-breeding is yet in its infancy. 

 Setli Green, if here, could tell you much better than I. I 

 suppose that eight or ten years is as old as they usually get 

 to be. 



Mr. Wetherell. How large trout have you known to be 

 caught in a brook ? 



Mr. Hodges. If I can answer that from hearsay, Livingston 

 Stone states that one was caught in New Hampshire or Maine, 

 in the Rangeley Lakes, and sent to Gen. Grant, which weighed 

 nine pounds and a half, and one which weighed ten pounds — 

 genuine brook trout. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I have seen brook trout that weighed nine 

 pounds and a half myself. 



Question. How large fish has Mr. Hodges got in his 

 ponds ? 



Mr. Hodges. I have none that weigh over three quarters 

 of a pound. I dispose of them as quick as they weigh one- 

 half or three-quarters of a pound. I have had trout that 

 weighed two or three pounds, but in ponds the size of mine, 

 when they attain the size of half or three-quarters of a pound, 

 they cease to pay. That is, the water is so shallow, and there 

 is so small a body of it, that it is best generally to dispose of 

 them, and fill up with younger fish, rather than to keep them 

 along. If you could turn them into deeper water, they would 

 grow fast and do well ; but in small ponds, the better way is 

 to dispose of them, and put in smaller fish. 



Mr. Kimberly. There is a pond near my house, called 

 Whist Pond, which was stocked with bass in 1869.« They 

 put in seventy-five fair-sized bass. Nobody was allowed to 

 fish there for three years. I was very careful myself in 



