172 The Development of Modern Fish Culture. 



knowledge had been accumulated which gave a certain amount 

 of security to the work, farms sprang up in many places. It may 

 be said that it has taken forty years to learn how to rear trout, 

 but during this time another and a wider field for the fish cul- 

 turist was opening up. This was the application of fish culture 

 to all the varying conditions that are to be found in our lakes and 

 rivers throughout the country. Though the growing of trout on 

 a trout farm was rightly considered a most important work, it soon 

 became apparent that if a reasonable return for this labour was 

 to be expected it was necessary to understand the needs and 

 influences affecting the fish in a natural environment. It was 

 found that if fish culture was to fulfil the hopes of its promoters 

 there was much to be done in the adaptation of the more or less 

 artificial product of the trout farm to the strenuous life in an 

 average water Avhere Nature deliberately besets the path of living 

 things with difficulty and danger in order to eliminate the unfit. 



After the young trout had been successfully reared it was 

 found necessary by a judicious adjustment of the fish for its new 

 environment and of the environment to the welfare of the fish to so 

 arrange matters that there should be the least possible chance of 

 the new conditions proving too severe for them. There was a 

 very natural endeavour at one time to produce a trout which 

 should be as large at any given age as was possible or at any rate 

 as large as any other trout farm could produce. The idea that 

 the largest fish were the best fish for stocking purposes became so 

 fixed and so universally acted upon that it is with the greatest 

 difficulty that the fish culturist can pursuade those who wish to 

 stock a water that this is not the case. Many cases of disappoint- 

 ment taught us that the best type of fish for stocking purposes is 

 one which is capable of growth to a large size, but which has 

 not been allowed to develop too fast. The reason for this is 

 apparent if we consider what are the two sets of conditions under 

 which a trout is reared at a trout farm and destined for some loch 

 or river. 



The training which the fish receives at the trout farm is very 

 different from the training a wild fish gets at the hands of nature. 

 The instinct to hunt for food is impaired unless great care is taken 

 to keep the fish alert and smart, and this can only be done by 

 judicious feeding. It will be apparent that a young trout with 

 more food at hand than it can take several times a dav is sure to 



