780 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



this food for small trout, and for small troughs it could not be recom- 

 mended. Some method would have to be found by which this food could 

 be put up in a shape that would be more acceptable to the fish. Further 

 experiments should at any rate be made with it, especially with a view 

 of feeding- trout in ponds. 



During the first years Mr. Haack had frequently fed the larger fish with 

 horse flesh, and this kind of food deserves some attention. But unfor- 

 tunately a good deal is required, and one is too much dependent on the 

 dealer, so that frequently, when too much meat is on hand, it becomes 

 necessary to salt it down. The price of this meat was at that time one 

 and a half cents a pound ; the fish often preferred the salt meat to the 

 fresh. For the one year old fish it was chopped in a meat-cutter, and 

 for the larger fish it was according to their age cut in small and large 

 cubes. The meat never putrefied in the water, for if the fish are properly 

 fed not a single piece will fall to the bottom. The fish remembered the 

 persons who fed them and came near the shore as soon as they noticed 

 them. On some holiday, however, when many people came to Hiiningen 

 to visit the fish-breeding establishment, the attendants during his ab- 

 sence fed the fish too much (for the sake of the gratuity which they re- 

 ceived from the visitors), a great quantity of meat remained lying at the 

 bottom, and by its putrefying, a good many fish were lost. Otherwise 

 the results at that time were very favorable, and a thirty months old 

 trout had simply by artificial feeding reached a weight of three pounds. 

 But one day the trout in all the ponds got sick very suddenly, so that 

 three to four thousand pounds were lost, and this phenomenon cannot 

 be explained in any other way but by supposing that the fish had been 

 fed on diseased meat. The greatest care must therefore be exercised, 

 and nothing but sound meat should be used. 



Mr. von dem Borne asked whether Mr. Haack had ever fed the fish 

 with maggots. He had heard it recommended to lay meat in boxes 

 placed over the water, and having a perforated bottom so that the mag- 

 gots could fall into the water. Other people again advised to gather 

 the spawn of frogs, and raise young frogs for food. 



Mr. Haack replied that it was unpleasant and not advisable to feed 

 the fish on maggots, as some of the meat was thus lost to them. Frogs 

 could not very well be raised artificially ; it was better to gather them, 

 but care should be taken not to transfer them from warm water into 

 cold trout-ponds. He would recommend frogs as food for somewhat 

 larger fish ; the only drawback was that frogs could not be procured 

 anywhere and at any season, particularly not in South Germany, where 

 there was also a lack of larvae, which are more frequent in North Ger- 

 many where there are more stagnant waters. 



Mr. Kuffer said that he had fed small trout, after they had lost their 

 umbilical bag, with perch-spawn, which he could easily procure, as well 

 as with ground liver. 



