162 FISH CULTUEE 



in about an hour. It is also essential to the 

 successful operation of an automatic feeder that 

 the food remain of uniform consistency. If the 

 liquid liver paste or the milk becomes thickened 

 beyond a certain point it cannot be drawn into 

 the water by the piston system or properly cast 

 by the revolving-spoon device. 



Some men object to the automatic feeder 

 chiefly on the ground that the strongest finger- 

 lings will get all the food and the weakest none 

 or very little ; at the end of a few months, they 

 say, there will be a few very large fish and a 

 great number of half-starved and little ones. 

 My experience and that of others is that this 

 does not occur, especially when the trout are 

 sorted at the proper time. Even if it were true 

 that the largest and strongest get nearly all 

 the food and the weakest very little, the condi- 

 tion would hardly be worse than when fed by 

 hand. I may add that after observing a con- 

 tinual use of automatic feeders for a long time 

 I find that the average size of all fish fed in 

 this manner is at least a third larger than those 

 fed by hand. This is also much the cheaper 

 way. In hand feeding, one man can care for 



