38 FOOD. 



the stream every day, the young fish may be fed. But 

 this is not practicable. With a large number of fish it 

 makes too much work. It would soon foul the troughs 

 and cause the fish to die, and then, if the young fish are 

 fed on this at first, they will not take the artificial food 

 afterward. Trout, of any age, learn to eat that food which 

 is most abundant around them. Anglers know this by ex- 

 perience, and use the flies which they see on the stream on 

 which they are fishing. It is commonly supposed that a 

 Trout is very fond of grasshoppers, but the Trout in one of 

 our ponds which we have fed for a long time with lights, 

 will not look at grasshoppers, and, strangestof all, will turn 

 up their noses at the fattest and juiciest worms, while the 

 Trout fresh caught out of the stream, which we have put 

 in a pond by themselves to educate, will for weeks refuse 

 the daintiest bits of lights and liver. JIunger will after a 

 time drive them to change their food ; but with the young 

 ones we cannot wait for this, as they will die off before 

 they learn. As the fish grow older and stronger more food 

 must be given to them ; still, when six months old, a bowl 

 full of curd, diluted with water, will answer tor a thou- 

 sand. AVhile the fish are young, feed often ; three or four 

 times a day for the first two or three months, and the 

 often er the better ; twice a day will do after three months 

 until they are a year old. 



A word just here about thick milk or curd. If milk 

 stands a short time in hot weather, or a longer time in cold 

 weather, it sours and becomes thick ; this thick milk is 

 called, we believe, bonny clabber. The process may be 

 hastened by heating the milk, or by the addition of rennet. 

 In that case the product is called curd. The milk nat- 

 urally turned is best for the young fish, as it is softer and 

 more easily picked to pieces. We have often seen the 

 young Trout, one after another, take and reject small 

 pieces of curd which had been turned by heating, while 



