2l6 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



not Improve its quality ; but the other advantages are 

 more than sufficient, at extreme temperatures, to offset 

 this objection. Do not feed spoiled meat to the fish. 

 If you ever have any on hand, bury it in some place 

 set apart for that purpose.* 



The trout feed differently at different seasons of the 

 year. In the spring, when the water begins to warm 

 up, they are most voracious, and will eat a larger daily 

 allowance for their weight than at any other part of 

 the year. During the first half of the summer their 

 appetite does not diminish much, except when the wa- 

 ter gets heated. When this occurs, they do not care so 

 much for food. Mr. Ainsworth found that his trout in 

 New York stopped eating at 70°. Mine continue to 

 take food up to 75°. Above that they are more or 

 less indifferent to it. As the spawning season ap- 

 proaches, the trout care less and less for food, and just 

 at their spawning time, and a week or two previous, 

 they avoid it, and go without eating entirely. When 

 their spawning is over they eat again, and are quite 

 ravenous on warm days, and where the temperature of 

 the water does not alter much they feed well all winter ; 

 but in brooks or ponds where the water cools with the 

 season their appetite falls off, and when the water 

 drops to 36°, or less, they either scarcely notice the 

 food or take it very languidly. At this degree of cold 

 they are in a torpid condition, and there is about as 

 much difference between their spring and elasticity at 

 this time and in the summer, as there is between the 



* This place at the Cold Spring Trout Ponds has been nick- 

 named the "Potter's Field." 



