80 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



in 1867 five thousand. This year he sells three hundred 

 thousand spawn at from eight to ten dollars per thousand ; 

 and two hundred thousand young fry at from thirty to 

 forty dollars per thousand ; the sales amounting perhaps 

 to ten thousand dollars from spawn and small fry, to say 

 nothing of the larger trout which he sells from his ponds. 



Mr. Ainsworth experimented in fish culture for recrea- 

 tion, with a desire to diffuse a knowledge of the art, and to 

 introduce it as a new industry, and does not follow it for 

 any profit it affords. Still, with his small supply of an inch 

 of variable water, he assures me he could have sold five 

 hundred dollars worth of spawn and small fry every year, 

 if he had applied himself with that object. He has 

 generally refused to sell spawn, unless the object of promo- 

 ting fish culture induced him. So his sales have varied 

 from a hundred to five hundred dollars per annum. In 

 the mean time, in a quiet way, he has stocked streams 

 and ponds without remuneration. From his largest pond, 

 which contains about fifteen hundred trout of various sizes, 

 he has this spring taken two or three messes every week 

 enough for his family, and a dozen men who are employed 

 in his nurseries. He takes them all (from three-quarters 

 to a pound and a half), with the artificial fly. When feed- 

 ing them, they are so tame that they will allow a lady, who 

 is his neighbor, to lift them from the water, and appear to 

 like to be fondled. I have just returned (May 20th) from 

 a fishing excursion, where I met him by appointment, and 

 he gave me these items verbally. 



In the town of Spring Water (I think, in Ontario 



