30 On Stocking. 



snow, it is impossible to get good moss sometimes for weeks 

 together. If the stock runs short at these times, marshy 

 places below springs are generally open, but the sphagnum is 

 rank, soft, and the lower portion frequently bleached, and 

 neither suitable for felting nor capable of living over a long 

 sea voyage. 



* The Manager inspects the grilles removed the day previous, 

 to see if they are in good condition and have been properly 

 cleansed, after which he superintends their being placed on the 

 rafters of a shed, where they remain dry and safe all summer. 



' When the fry begin to feed, the hatchery demands much 

 more of the Manager's time. He requires to check the food 

 left by the butcher, test the paste prepared for feeding the fry, 

 and to specify the exact quantity of food each box requires. 



' FEEDING THE FRY. The best and most economical food 

 for trout fry costs about Is. 4d. per lb., and, strange though 

 it may appear, it is much cheaper than liver at Id. per lb., 

 that is to say, one pound of this paste goes far further, and 

 produces much better results, than sixteen pounds of liver, 

 because it is more nourishing, and there is no waste. The 

 food is prepared by weighing several pounds of fillet of beef, 

 not beef-steak, which is too stringy, nor a piece off the 

 surloin, which is generally too fat. Fillet of horse is equally 

 suitable with fillet of beef, and surloin of horse, being 

 generally very lean, is nearly as good. But as no establish- 

 ment kills anything like a sufficient number of horses to 

 supply the fry with the tit-bits, the butcher must necessarily 

 be the chief purveyor. Mutton is not suitable. All the fat 

 being carefully scraped off, and the meat being weighed, it is 

 pounded in a large marble mortar, and passed through a 

 coarse sieve. The yolks of hard-boiled eggs are then added, 

 nine eggs being allowed to each pound of meat. The eggs 

 should be several days old, as, if new-laid, it is impossible to 

 boil the yolk until it is mealy. This can be easily arranged 

 by buying foreign eggs from a wholesale dealer by the box, 

 which runs from 120 to 150 dozen, and at Howietoun 



