REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 73 



among the young fry, and says, " We don't know what 

 is the matter with them, nor how to cure them."* 



Now I wish at the outset to express distinctly my 

 deference to authorities so high, — indeed, I know of 

 none higher, — but I must, nevertheless, venture to 

 disagree with them if they mean that there is any 

 necessary inherent cause of death in the young fry 

 which cannot be removed. Some will die, say five 

 per cent, though it ought to be less than this, of weak 

 constitutions. They are born into the world so weak- 

 ly constituted that they cannot stand the wear and 

 tear of life, and must die. I admit that there may be 

 perhaps five per cent of these necessary, unavoidable 

 deaths ; but that the rest come into being already 

 doomed to premature death, or that young trout have 

 any mysterious or peculiar inlierent cause of death in 

 them, any more than young calves, or pigs, or chick- 

 ens, I do not believe. In the present state of infor- 

 mation of the art, young trout fry may be more liable 

 to accidents than other young domesticated creatures, 

 ai-id it may be more difficult to guard against their 

 diseases ; but this is another thing. Careless breed- 

 ing may, and careless hatching certainly will, pro- 

 duce a progeny of young trout of which ninety per 

 cent will die ; but this is also another thing. Careful 

 breeding and hatching will produce trout which are 

 just as likely to live, in my opinion, as the same num- 

 ber of lambs or chickens ; and if the young fry die, it 

 is not because of any mysterious, innate cause peculiar 

 to them because they are trout, but it is because they 

 * Trout Culture, p. 42. 



