76 Thirtij-lSecond Annual Meeting 



"To produce maggots cheaply and in great quantities upon 

 vegetables and beef-blood. Moisture, shade and warmth are the 

 fundamental conditions of the artificial production of insects as 

 fish food. Maggots are produced (by the wholesale) as follows: 



"Take a wooden box I/2 fo 1 meter long, 1/4 fo ^2 meter wide 

 and 1/4 to 1/2 meter deep, wet the whole inside and strew it witli 

 sawdust or dry turf-earth so that these shall remain clinging to 

 the walls, and then put in, from the bottom up, in layers of 6 to 

 10 centimeters, hrst sawdust or turf-earth, second sterilized 

 (scalded or roasted) Ijran, third coag-ulated blood in pieces, to- 

 gether with the serum and chopped up frogs or fish, fourth 

 chopped up plants or boiled mushrooms.. Then again in order, 

 first, second, third, fourth, until the top. Then put the box in 

 warm moist shade. In eight, twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six 

 hours the flies will have deposited their eggs in the mass, and the 

 moist warmth will have hatched them. Should a cold rainstorm 

 occur, then ])ut the boxes in ])its in tlio eai'tli upon fermenting 

 horse manure, and surround them upon the outside Avith the 

 same, and cover them so tliat the cool rain water shall not pene- 

 trate and hinder the liatcliing of the eggs. When the fish are 

 being fed, the chest is to l)e emptied in standing water. In flow- 

 ing water the contents of tlie chest must be piit in tinned wire 

 baskets having wide meshes, and loaded with stones and sunk tj 

 tlic liottom, otherwise the current will sweep them away." 



P('i-hai)s climatic and other conditions are such as to render 

 this a clieap method of ])roducing flsh food; but in America the 

 collection of a sufficient quantity of mushrooms to play any im- 

 ])ortant ])art in the mixture would lie impracticable, and the 

 manual ])rocesses described would render it rather costly. I 

 (loiil)l. moreover, whether this scheme was ever can-ied out on 

 moi-e than an experimental scale. 



The procedure with maggots at Craig Brook was in outline 

 as follows: Animal sul)stances, which had been exposed to the 

 visits of the flies and received deposits of their eggs were put 

 awav in boxes, where the eggs were allowed to hatch and the 

 maggots to grow until they had attained suitable size, when they 

 were taken out and fed to young fish in troughs or small ponds. 



The material used was of various kinds. Butcher's offal, 

 plucks or haslets, horses or other domestic animals dying by acci- 



