224 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



one trout pond where it was only a question of time 

 about one half of the fish going down the throats of the 

 other half. The fact is, trout are by nature incurable 

 cannibals, and they will always gratify their natural in- 

 stincts, to some extent at least, and will sometimes 

 carry them to a very destructive length.* 



My advice is, where you have different-sized trout 

 confined, to draw off your pond, or, if you cannot draw 

 it off, sweep out all the fish with a sweep seine, and 

 sort them thoroughly at stated intervals. In sorting, it 

 is well to remember that there is six times as much 

 mischief from having one large one with six small 

 ones than six large ones with one small one, because 

 the one large one will eat up all the small ones, while 

 the whole of the other six can eat only the small one. 

 The most dangerous times, when the trout are not kept 

 sorted, are just after a rain in the spring or summer, 

 and when the weather suddenly moderates in the win- 

 ter. In the first case the disturbed water prevents 

 their taking their regular feed, and they get very hun- 

 gry in consequence, and in the other case the warm 



* I once had some full-grown trout, of the peculiarly large va- 

 riety found in Monadnoc Lake, confined in a small pond, and 

 one autumn had occasion to remove them, and put in a number 

 of small brook trout. The pond was a covered one, and the 

 fish were not particularly examined through the winter. In the 

 spring, when the cover was removed, it was found that more than 

 one half of the brook trout had disappeared. A thorough search 

 of the pond revealed a large and very fat Monadnoc trout hidden 

 in a dark hole, where he had been overlooked in the removal of 

 the others. He had eaten at least one hundred two or three 

 ounce trout during the winter. 



