236 



SEASON 1877-78. 



and there must generally be so many slopes to dress in any new 

 fish-farm, that I give a sketch. It can be used with either a 



level or plumb-bob, and costs about 

 6s. Fig. 161 is a sketch of triangle, 

 or level and plumb. 



The old hut had now become too 

 small to prepare all the food for the 

 trout, and a new mincing-house was 

 ordered, and built by the foresters of 

 home-grown timber. The floor was 

 laid with pavement, except in the 

 centre, where two large beech blocks 

 were bedded in concrete to support 

 -scale A- a powerful mincing-machine and deaden 



the jar. A boiler was built in with brick in one corner of the 

 house, and a brick chimney led outside to the roof. Two windows 

 were made in either end, and filled in with perforated zinc to 

 ensure a thorough draught. Beams fitted with pulleys were 

 placed opposite the windows, from which the horse-flesh was 

 hung. A double-sparred door in the centre of the north side of 

 the house completed the work. The roof was protected by 

 roofing-felt, well tarred, and the house was painted on the 

 outside. It was placed near the end of the east 130-feet pond, 

 at right angles to the run of the ponds. The mincing-machine 

 was in full working order by the 10th September 1877, and has 

 a capacity of half a cwt. at a time. It is driven by four men, but, 

 if not too heavily charged, can be worked by two. Some day I 

 hope to chop all the horse-flesh required by water-power. The 

 machine chops with knives on to a beech chopping-block, the 

 block revolving slowly at each stroke. After the meat is all 

 prepared for the day, if any of the very young fish are on horse- 

 flesh diet, their proportion is placed a second time on the block, 

 and thus the difficulty of the food being too small for the large 

 trout is avoided. A suitable place was dug for the bones, 

 lined with wood, and covered with a lid. The bones are all pre- 

 pared by boiling, and the meat scraped off them. The boiled meat 



