CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 243 



cold. The old trout will need to be fed but three or 

 four times a week, the yearlings not much oftener, the 

 young fry only once or twice a day, and there will now 

 be no more bad eggs to pick out. Thus the work is 

 very much lessened ; but it is the lull before the storm, 

 if this expression may be used, for soon the young fry 

 begin to feed, and their thousands or hundreds of 

 thousands of mouths must be fed five or six times 

 a day. The shells of the hatched eggs, now be- 

 ing constantly shed by the young fish, clog up the 

 screens, and make incessant watching of them neces- 

 sary. 



Very likely the frost and muskrats are making trou- 

 ble with the ponds or aqueducts outside, and altogether 

 this is usually made a very busy time, the burden of 

 which is not at all lessened by the shortness of the days 

 and the excessive cold. As the spring advances the 

 young fry are thinned out by sales, they require to be 

 fed less often, the fry of last year have become year- 

 lings, the days lengthen, the weather grows warmer, 

 and the work becomes easier and pleasanter, until the 

 sales of the young fry are over. The balance of them 

 are soon turned into their nurseries, rearing-boxes, or 

 ponds, and the labor is reduced again to the mere rou- 

 tine of the summer. 



The cares of a trout-breeding establishment in full 

 operation are very considerable most of the time, and 

 few beginners will be wholly able to free themselves 

 from consequent anxiety ; but this is more than bal- 

 anced a hundred times over by the constant interest 

 and ever-increasing enthusiasm which the beautiful 



