20 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



the fish. Excavated ponds are the only safe ones. 

 Let your rule be, when possible, to excavate rather 

 than dam up. 



3. Build your ponds as compactly as possible. This 

 might be said of your whole establishment also. Have 

 all^your ponds and works as near together as other 

 more important considerations will allow. In ramy 

 weather, and deep snows, and times of danger, you 

 will appreciate this. 



4. Build al) your ponds small that mean business. 

 Never break over this rule. Make your ponds for 

 sport as large as you please, and I should say the 

 larger the better ; but when you mean business, build 

 small. The greatest nuisance in the world, in a trout- 

 breeding establishment, is a large pond, where the 

 trout are out of control, and do as they please, and go 

 as they please, wholly regardless of your convenience. 

 This rule should always be observed, namely, never 

 to let a trout escape to any place where you cannot get 

 at it, observe it, and capture it at a moment's notice. 



It is just as ridiculous, in the present stage of trout- 

 breeding at least, to turn out your trout in a large 

 pond, where they can get away from you, as it is to 

 turn out your sheep or cattle in an unfenced moun- 

 -tain-pasture, where you will never hear from them 

 again unless you fit out a regular hunting expedition 

 to look them up. In course of time, when trout 

 become as plentiful as the cattle and horses in South 

 American pampas, this will do, perhaps ; but now, when 

 trout are as scarce as they are, and worth a dollar a 

 pound, you want to have them where they cannot 



