How to obtain it. 135 



life lasts give them a chance. This is easily done, by putting 

 them into the gutter which takes the water away from the hatching 

 boxes. The writer was surprised, the first season this was tried, to 

 find how many of them revived and made good fish. It will be 

 easily understood that amongst a number of little fish in a 

 hatching or rearing box, a few are liable, like chickens or any 

 other beings, to become sickly. If left where they are these soon 

 die, but by being given freedom, and plenty of room and water, 

 and turned into a pond which is densely planted with suitable 

 aquatic vegetation, many of them recover, and the wholesome 

 natural food upon which they live soon makes good fish of them. 



All hatching boxes should be provided with covers or lids, 

 These should be made as light as possible in weight, and half 

 inch boarding does very well. The eggs are much better for being 

 in the dark ; in fact light is bad for them. Be careful, then, to 

 have lids for all the hatching boxes. 



No one should be allowed to enter a hatchery but those 

 whose business it is to work in it and visitors who desire to see 

 the hatching and other operations. The latter should always be 

 conducted through the building by the manager, or some other 

 responsible person, who will be able to describe the various 

 processes, and to see that nothing is disarranged. There is a 

 latent propensity in human nature that from time to time shows 

 itself in certain individuals, leading them, if they see a tap, just to 

 turn it, or to try if a sluice be fixed or movable. These little acts, 

 simple as they may seem, may cause incalculable damage in a 

 hatchery. The same applies amongst the ponds. I once had a 

 number of connecting rods projecting above the water, for the 

 purpose of working some of the pond plugs, and quite a number 

 of visitors who carried walking-sticks or umbrellas, gave these a 

 tap in passing, and caused disarrangement of the outlet valves. I 

 got over this difficulty, as I thought, by shortening the rods, so 

 that the projecting ends remained some few inches below the 

 surface of the water. Soon after this had been done, I was 

 showing some visitors round, and one of them, seeing the end of 

 a rod underneath the water, gave it a vigorous poke with his 

 umbrella, asking at the same time what it was for. I showed him 

 what he had done in disarranging the outlet valve, and he was 



