936 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



be taken not to feed too much, else the surplus food will remain on the bottom, and decaying 

 there, foul the trough. The reason of the difficulty in raising young fish, appears to be that 

 they are literally starved to death. The food which we can give them is not natural to them, 

 it is often given in such coarse pieces that they cannot take it, and sometimes, through the 

 carelessness of a hired hand, they are neglected two or three days at a time. 



It is impossible to get natural food for the fry, in fact no one knows what it is, further 

 than that it must be microscopic insects of some sort, as the adult trout are never known to 

 feed on anything but animal food. It is found in the spring runs, even actually in them; as 

 they apparently issue bare of life from the bosom of the earth. Liver is but a poor and un 

 natural substitute for this food, with fish so delicate as the trout, and if they once get the 

 habit of feeding naturally on what the water offers, they will not take the artificial food after 

 ward. Fish, of any age, learn to eat that food which is most abundant around them. 

 Anglers know this by experience, and use the flies which they see on the stream on which 

 they are fishing. It is supposed that a trout is very fond of grasshoppers, but the trout in 

 one of our ponds which we have fed for a long time with beef lights, will not look at grass 

 hoppers, and will turn up their noses at the fattest and juiciest worms, while the trout fresh 

 caught out of the stream, which we have put in a pond by themselves to educate, will for 

 weeks refuse the daintiest bits of lights and liver. Hunger will after a time drive them to 

 change their food; but with the young ones we cannot wait for this, as they will die off before 

 they learn. As the fish grow older and stronger, more food must be given to them; when six 

 months old, a bowl full of liver will answer for a thousand. &quot;When the fish are young, feed 

 often; six or eight times a day for the first two or three months; three times a day will do 

 after three months, until they are a year old. 



Young salmon, young salmon trout, California mountain trout, and above all, young 

 California salmon are larger, have stronger appetite, and will accept coarser food. For them, 

 although at first the liver should be made as fine as for trout when they are a few weeks old, 

 it will be hardly necessary to dilute it at all, and in the course of a few months, they will not 

 only take the larger pieces, often tearing them apart, but will scorn the finer portion. At 

 one time, sour milk was almost exclusively used for feeding young fish, but it has been given 

 up. Other foods have been tried, but with no better success. The fish will not thrive on any 

 of them as well as they do on liver, and do not thrive on that as well as if it were a natural 

 food. 



As they grow older, other things may be substituted, or may be added to it for a change. 

 They are fond of the roe of other fish, of the spawn of the horse-foot or king-crab; of fish 

 itself, and when they are large enough to eat minnows, no better food can be given them. 

 Liver is too expensive whenit has to be used alone for grown fish, and beef lights are usually 

 added to it or used in place of it in a measure. It is miserable food, however, much of it pass 

 ing through the stomachs of the trout and salmon wholly undigested and collecting in the 

 bottom of the ponds. It injures the digestive organs and must &quot;be deleterious to the health 

 of the fish. Its only recommendation is that it is cheap. Maggots are bred on spoilt meat, 

 hung over the ponds, and as they fall off and drop into the water, are readily devoured, and 

 make excellent food. Or a piece of spoilt meat may be placed in a deep bottle like a preserv 

 ing bottle, and the flies that will collect in immense numbers during summer, may be caught 

 and emptied into the water. This trap will take many times its bulk of flies by being kept 

 set all the time, and emptied when any one is passing it. Flies are probably the best food 

 that can be given to trout. 



Food of Adult Trout. In keeping large numbers of fish either for breeding or for 

 sale, the first thing to be determined is, what is the best food which can be obtained cheapest 

 and in the greatest quantities. This question is important because the profit depends upon it. 

 All other circumstances being equal, he who can obtain the cheapest food will make fish rais 

 ing pay the best. In France and Germany, dead animals are gathered from the Jarms 

 around the fish establishments and made into pates, or pies, which are fed to the freh as 

 wanted. However good this may be for the fish, it is somewhat repugnant to the taste of the 

 fish eater. In this country we pursue a cleaner method. The pluck of animals killed (that 

 is the lights, liver, and heart) is obtained from the butchers. This food can be obtained 

 fresh at least once or twice a week in most localities, and kept fresh by means of an ice 

 house, In fact trout will not eat decayed or spoiled meat unless they are very hungry. They 

 are very dainty in their tastes, and will often go hungry rather than take anything which they 

 do not fancy. We feed meat to them raw. 



The lights should be given to the larger fish, as it can not be chopped as fine as the liver, 



