On Stocking. 31 



generally lasts about ten days. When the yolks of egg and 

 and meat have been thoroughly mixed in the mortar, they 

 are passed through a fine wire sieve and kneaded into a stiff 

 paste. This is rolled into the shape of a thick sausage, and 

 cut and rolled into large pills, each sufficient to give one 

 meal to five boxes. Theoretically, the weight of each pill 

 should be checked, but in practice it is found that the eye 

 is a sufficient guide. When the food is all prepared, it is 

 taken into the hatching-house, and one pill placed on the 

 edge of the fifth box in each row. One of the girls then 

 goes round with a feeding-spoon, and, beginning at the 

 bottom box, presses the food through the perforated zinc of 

 the feeding-spoon, which reduces it into fine vermicelli. 

 When the threads are about two inches long, they are shaken 

 off into the water, and the current keeps them always in 

 motion. The fry, having their attention attracted, seize on 

 the moving filaments, and drag them all over the box, causing 

 the greatest excitement, so that the fry eat quite as much 

 out of jealousy as from hunger. I can compare it to nothing 

 else than a pack of highly-bred hounds breaking up a fox. 

 If the meat has been too fat, the filaments adhere, and lie in 

 the bottom untouched. If, on the other hand, too little egg 

 has been used, they break up into a thin soup, which very 

 soon fouls the box. But when properly prepared, and the 

 fry not over-fed, there is not one particle of waste. 



' The feeding-spoon is made out of elm by boring a large 

 hole out of a 1-inch plank, and making a saw-drift through 

 which to pass the perforated zinc. The hole is tightened up 

 with a couple of brass screws. 



1 Nos. 8 and 9 zinc are the proper sizes. If the holes are 

 smaller it is impossible to pass the prepared food through, 

 and if larger, the filaments are too thick to be easily eaten by 

 the fry, and get broken up. Should it be imperative to feed 

 with liver, sheep's is better than bullock's as it breaks up 

 through the zinc into much larger particles, and, though more 

 costly to buy, there being much less waste, is less expensive. 

 Great care must be taken not to over-feed the fry on the pre- 

 pared food, or they will stretch their stomachs to the size of 



