On Stocking. 43 



which, if stocked annually with yearlings to be 

 sold as two-years-olds the following winter, would 

 yield a very handsome return for the cost and 

 trouble : only these ponds would require to be 

 annually emptied, as a few of the previous years' 

 stocking would make short work of the new-comers. 



THE COST OF YEARLINGS. Yearlings, when 

 grown in artificial ponds, are so under control that 

 the cost is fairly stable, taking one year with 

 another ; and is composed of the following items : 

 Cost of fry ; rent of pond, including water supply 

 and renewals ; cost of food and attendance, in- 

 cluding the preparation of food. There are other 

 items before they can be despatched, such as 

 office correspondence, cartage to station, netting 

 and cost of preparation for without some pre- 

 paration yearlings travel indifferently. 



The first of these items, viz., cost of fry. One 

 gallon of Ova incubated and reared into four 

 boxes of three-month-old fry costs 15, 4s. 6d. 

 (see page 38), taking the ordinary cost of produc- 

 tion of Ova at 9 per gallon. A little over 30 

 gallons of Ova incubated and reared to three- 

 month-old fry was used last season at Howietoun, 

 or about 120 boxes of fry; the value of which, 

 on the above basis, was 450, 15s. The actual 

 cost of food is not easily ascertained from the 

 books, as it was not kept separate from that of 



