of a surprise to me as nothing had ev^er happened be- 

 fore in all my experience ; however, I argued that as 

 the ponds were cleaned out and the water settled that 

 the fish would be all right again, but in this I was mis- 

 taken, for the fish continued to die as rapidly alter the 

 ponds were cleared out as before. This, to me was un- 

 explainable, as the fish to all appearance were in a 

 good healthy condition, showing no signs of the fungus 

 of the cottony sort, which follows an injury to the skin, 

 but they continued to die with alarming regularity. I 

 then hired extra help and put them to work cleaning 

 out the mud that had accumulated in the bottom of the 

 ponds. We went through four ponds, shoveling out 

 all the mud and decaying matter, leaving the ponds as 

 clean and free of all injurious matter as on the day 

 they were first completed ; but all this work was ap- 

 parently of no avail, as the fish continued to die. We 

 then handled the fish over again giving them all a salt 

 bath, which is a sure cure for parasites, but this did not 

 appear to do much good. My latest experiment is to 

 stop feeding liver and feed the fish on maggots and 

 minnows. I do this in the hope that a change of food 

 may do them some good. We have lost so far about 

 eight hundred trout from one-half to two pounds in 

 weight, and we are still losing fifteen or twenty fish a 

 day. In all my years of work in fish culture this is 

 the most peculiar and annoying experience that I have 

 ever had, and I sincerely hope that I may soon discover 

 some remedy which will prevent the further ravages of 

 the disease that is so rapidly decimating our stock of 

 trout. I had hoped when I made this report that I 

 would be able to say that the danger of further loss 

 from this unknown disease was over, but unless my 

 latest experiment proves successful I will be at a loss 

 what to do next, as I have almost exhausted my re- 

 sources. 



Yours respectfully, 



M. E. O'Brien. 



