CHAPTER VIII. 



General Remarks. 



Stocking Ponds. — The question is often asked by begin- 

 ners, with what shall I commence fish-farming ? Shall I 

 buy the eggs and try to raise them, and wait three years 

 for full-grown fish, or shall I buy adult fish, and from them 

 take eggs, etc. ? The answer to this question depends upon 

 two circumstances. First, how much money you have ; 

 and second, how long you wish to wait. It is much cheaper 

 to buy the eggs than the adult fish ; but then you will have 

 to wait two or three years before you have any breeders. 

 My own advice would be to try a few thousand eggs, and 

 also a few hundred two-year old fish. At the present 

 prices (1869-70), ten thousand eggs would cost eighty dol- 

 lars, and two hundred two-year olds would cost about fifty 

 dollars. Two hundred two year-olds would probably 

 give about twenty thousand eggs. If you take this advice, 

 you will have eggs to experiment with the first year. 

 With care, you will hatch out more or less, but in any case 

 your experience will be invaluable to you for the next year, 

 and you will have a stock of breeders, to furnish eggs, as 

 you want them. 



Stocking Streams. — Persons who own Trout-streams 

 would very often like to have them re-stocked, and some 

 make feeble attempts to do it, bj putting in a few thousand 

 young fish. This would re-stock a small stream, if it was 

 done every year, for some years. But it is folly to suppose 

 that a stream which has been fished for years, and thousands 

 taken from it every year, can be re-stocked quickly by putting 



