46 GROWTH OF TROUT. 



market may always be found for fisli of tliis size than for 

 any other. There is only one market in the United States 

 wliere there is a demand for very large Trout, and that is 

 Kew York, where the largest Trout sell the most readily. 

 Besides, iish of this size (small) are the handiest to manage 

 in the spawning bed, and more of them can be raised. If 

 the spawn is extracted by hand, the difficulty in handling 

 a two pound Trout is very great and increases very fast as 

 the iish grows larger. Not only is it a great trouble to 

 handle the large ones, but the danger of killing them is 

 much greater ; so that, in our opinion, from one-quarter to 

 one-pound w^eight is as large as the fish farmer should at- 

 tempt to grow his Trout, unless from motives of curiosity 

 to see how large they will get to be. As to the flavor of 

 a Truut, nothing need be said in its praise, as its excellence 

 has lung been conceded ; but much has been said about 

 the inferiority of flavor in Trout raised artificially. There 

 is no foundation for such an opinion. The angler, of 

 course, thinks no Trout equal in flavor to that which he 

 catches himself. After he has been tramping all day in the 

 open air and gathering a raging appetite from his exercise 

 and sport, he will cook a Trout over a smoking wood fire, 

 eat it half raw and half burnt, and declare it the most de- 

 licious morsel in the world. It is not very reasonable, at any 

 rate, to suppose that a lanternjaw^ed, slab-sided, long-bodied, 

 half-starved Trout out of a mountain stream is equal in flavor 

 to a well-fed, fat and sleek Trout from the artificial pond. 

 As to actual experience I canhot tell any difterence in flavor 

 myself, neither did I ever meet any one w^ho made the trial 

 under fair circumstances who could detect the difference. 

 This statement must not be misunderstood. There is a 

 great difterence in the flavor of Trout taken from difierent 

 parts of the same stream, and at difterent times of the 

 year, even from opposite sides of the stream. Still the 

 Bame trouty flavor is distinguishable in all, and the flavor 



