GROWTH OF TROUT 35 



little to be said further than what I have already 

 remarked, viz., that fly-food (salmon-roe, perhaps, 

 excepted !), is the most suitable and the most 

 nourishing. In proof of which statement it may 

 be of interest to quote the results of an experiment 

 which was made many years ago in the South of 

 England, with a view of ascertaining the value of 

 different foods. Yarrell makes mention of it as 

 being recorded by Mr. Stoddart in his ' Art of 

 Angling as practised in Scotland,' and I quote 

 from him : 



' Fish were placed in three separate tanks, one 

 of which was supplied daily with worms, another 

 with live minnows, and a third with those small, 

 dark-coloured water-flies which are to be found 

 moving about on the surface under banks and 

 sheltered places. The trout fed with worms grew 

 slowly, and had a lean appearance ; those nour- 

 ished on minnows, which, it was observed, they 

 darted at with great voracity, became much larger; 

 while such as were fattened upon flies only, at- 

 tained in a short time prodigious dimensions, 

 weighing twice as much as both the others 

 together, although the quantity of food swallowed 

 by them was in nowise so great.' 



Roughly speaking, it takes, under favourable 

 conditions, three years for a trout to grow to a 

 pound in weight. It is therefore quite possible 

 to arrive at a tolerably accurate conclusion as 



