SIMPLE FISH-CTJLTURE. 9 



trout-breeding as it is carried on by professional fish-breeders ; 

 but I wish more particularly to tell of a way by which 15,000 

 trout-fry or more may be produced at a very moderate expendi- 

 ture of time, trouble, and money. When trout- eggs are within 

 a week or so of hatching they are called eyed ova, the eyes 

 of the embryo fish being distinctly visible through the shell 

 of the egg. Eyed ova are supplied by all the fish-culturists, 

 at prices varying from £7 10s. per box of 15,000 to 30s. the 

 thousand.* To hatch the eggs they may be placed on a gravelly 

 shallow in the brook or stream, in a foot of water or less, 

 and covered with a piece of fine wire-netting. They should 

 be ordered to be sent just on the point of hatching, so that 

 they hatch out in a couple of days. The fry will look after 

 themselves. Floods are a standing danger to this plan. Fry, 

 unless bred in enormous quantities, are very little use in rivers 

 which either already contain trout, or other feeders on fish, 

 such as pike, perch, and chub. 



A stream, however small, which runs into a pond, affords 

 every convenience for hatching out the ova and rearing fry. 

 The pond should be cleared of other fish, and the outlet 

 carefully guarded with very fine perforated zinc, to prevent the 

 escape of the fry. Some slight preparation is advisable in 

 the stream. The simplest thing to do is merely to lay the eyed 

 ova on a suitable shallow (i.e., where the water is 4in. to Sin. 

 in depth, and flows gently), cover it with fine-meshed wire- 

 netting, fixed a few inches above the surface of the water, 

 and leave it. It is advisable to cover over the whole of the 



supply. If the natural food-supply is not equal to the wants of the fry, a certain 

 number of the little fish are bound to die. The fry at Howietoun are fed on a 

 paste (made in worm-like form by being squeezed through perforated zinc) consist- 

 mg of fillet or sirloin (no fat) of beef or horse, pounded, and intimately mixed with 

 the yolks of hard-boiled eggs (nine to each lib.), and passed through a wire sieve 

 (see " The History of Howietoun," by Sir James Maitland, Bart.). In Mr. Andrews' 

 fishponds, at Guildford, there is sufficient natural food, and the fry do not require 

 feeding. 



* The following is, I believe, a complete list of professional fish-culturists ; it 

 may be found useful. Eggs can be sent any distance (only buy those which are 

 guaranteed to have been taken from large fish) ; but the shorter the distance 

 trout of any size have to travel, the better. South of E^igland : Thos. Andrews, 

 Guildford ; Davis, High Wycombe, Bucks ; Capel (gillaroo, &c.). Foots Cray, Kent ; 

 Trent Fish Culture Company, Milton, Burton-on-Trent. Midland Counties : 

 Burgess, Malvern Wells. Eastern Counties : Ford (coarse fish as well as trout), 

 Caistor, Lincolnshire ; Lieut. -Colonel Custance, Norwich. Scotland : Armistead, 

 Sol way Fisheries, Dumfries; Sir J. R. G. Maitland, Bart., Howietoun Fishery 

 (J. R. Guy, Secretary), Stirling. 



