102 PRACTICAL TROUT CULTURE. 



full glory of trouthood, becoming an independent 

 member of the great animal kingdom, and experi- 

 encing the sensation of hunger which must be ap- 

 peased. 



And now for the first time we encounter the food 

 question, that great problem on which depends, 

 in a great measure, the future success of fish 

 culture. This has been at length solved for the 

 troutlet, while for the adult a proper, cheap, and 

 healthful food is still a thing of the future. In 

 nature the troutlets are provided with food by the 

 numerous larvao and adult insects which abound 

 in all waters, as is shown by examination of their 

 stomachs ; but these it is as yet beyond our power 

 to procure, and we, at best, can only provide a 

 substitute. Curd, that universal food of theoret- 

 ical fish-farmers, has been tried both by ourselves 

 and others, and in many cases has acted as an act- 

 ual poison, one gentleman having lost five thou- 

 sand fishes, before the cause of death was sus- 

 pected, the mortality ceasing on a proper food be- 

 ing supplied. Boiled yolk of egg has been highly 

 recommended, but is objectionable on account 

 of the great amount of deleterious gases evolved 

 by its putrefaction. Boiled meats have been used 

 with success after having been pressed and grated, 

 but by boiling much of the nutritive material is 

 lost. After giving all these and many other sub- 



