90 FISH FARMING I 



ground permits of the necessary fall or gradient. My success at 

 trout farming is chiefly due to artificial redds. Yet they cost al- 

 most nothing. They have never f adled wherever I have known 

 them to be made, and twoi or three are capable of stocking miles 

 of water, turning out from 15,000 to< 20,000 fry per mile if 

 dealing with a big water." 



I could point to several cases in which attempts have been 

 made to stock rivers and streams with yearlings and two-year- 

 olds, and the results have been anvthing but satisfactory. The 

 same water, when stocked with fully-eyed ova a,nd fry in 

 various stages of growth, have done well. I hope it will not be 

 thought that I am advocating stocking with fully-eyed ova, and 

 fry, those and only those ; I am merely endeavouring not 

 without some hope of success to encourage these simple 

 methods, being convinced that if more attention were given 

 to them ths result wooild be most encouraging ; and, what is 

 more, they would be permanent. 



In another chapter I allude to several methods of rearing fry 

 by the side of a sporting water before they are permitted to 

 enter the latter. In passing I may refer to the folly of pur- 

 chasing fry and transferring them direct to an open water on 

 which no pretence of protection whatever has been made. 



You may stock your redds, and therefrom your fishery, by 

 the introduction of spawners to your fishery, but in this case 

 I must again caution you against the folly of introducing un- 

 healthy or otherwise unsuitable fish to your fishery. As to 

 choice of spawners, see my nemarks on spawning fish. 



If a pond, lake, river, or stream is to be stocked with a view 

 of affording sport at once, then two-year-olds may be intro- 

 duced. Such waters should onlv bs stocked in late autumn, 

 winter, or early spring ; otherwise the fish may suffer in trar 

 veiling and from preparation for travelling; and, although 

 they may appear to be in good health on arrival, they may 

 quite easily have become almost impossible for spoit at least, 

 for that season. For preference, spring is the best time for 

 stocking; the newly introduced fish have then a far better 

 chance of getting an ample supply of natural food. 



