How too btain it. 265 



to be a pond available into which they can be put. Pond room 

 is usually too scarce on a fish-farm, but should there be room for 

 them anywhere they will make good fish if properly attended to. 



Sometimes a net has to be hauled under the ice. This is 

 quite easily done. It usually happens that the water does not 

 freeze much at the inlet end of a pond, and as those which mean 

 business are rectangular in shape, the matter is a very simple one. 

 Cut the ice along the sides of the pond, and across the outlet end 

 where a slit should be made wide enough to allow for the insertion 

 of the net. As soon as it is set the cork line should be slipped 

 under the ice, and it can be hauled along quite easily, the ropes 

 working in the slits made along the pond sides. At the inlet end 

 there is usually plenty of open water to allow of the lifting of the 

 net, and if not it is easy to remove a slab or two, or even to break 

 the ice up, but not the slightest difficulty has ever arisen. The 

 most dangerous effect of ice on a pond at such a time, is that it 

 settles down when the water is let off, and without care and watch- 

 fulness a fish or two may get smothered by being left underneath 

 it, especially should there be any mud on the bottom of the pond. 



The male fish having now been separated, should be kept to 

 themselves hereafter, as they do very much better away from the 

 females. They do not fight so much as they do when mixed 

 together, and are not so apt to be attacked by that well-known 

 scourge, fungus (Saprolegnia). The food, too, can be varied a 

 little. It is a great mistake to suppose that the males do not 

 require well feeding. At the same time they need not be allowed 

 to share all the rich and expensive food which it is necessary to 

 supply to the females. The question of food for the large fish is 

 a serious item, and is one of the heaviest expenses attached to the 

 growing of trout. In addition to the beef, biscuit, mussels, etc., 

 a large quantity of natural food can be produced on the farm. All 

 the scraps of meat, sinew, gristle, and bone, may be largely made 

 use of; indeed, nothing should be wasted. A great deal of this, 

 as well as the numerous rats and other vermin which should be 

 trapped, may be converted into maggots, which are excellent diet 

 for the fish. 



There are many clumsy ways of making these, but they are 

 of little use practically. One or two proper maggot factories 



