104 PRACTICAL TROUT CULTURE. 



order, and can be in a moment taken apart and 

 cleaned a matter of no small importance in hot 

 weather. A pound of heart can be cut by this 

 in about seven minutes sufficiently fine for the 

 smallest trout. Should any coagulated blood be 

 found in the heart, it may be thrown into the 

 chopper with it. Yet, still some minute fragments 

 of fibrous tissue may remain, and to remove these, 

 as well as to be sure that all the meat is chopped 

 sufficiently fine, the pulp is mixed with w:itr and 

 washed (not rubbed) through a fine wire sieve of 

 twenty-eight threads to the inch. By this means 

 all fragments over about one-fiftieth of an inch in 

 diameter are retained and may be returned to tho 

 chopper for further comminution. Copper wire 

 for the sieve is objectionable, as the oxide or rust, 

 which forms rapidly upon it in the damp atmos- 

 phere of the hatching-house, will act as a direct 

 poison upon the young fishes. The same fault is 

 found in brass. Iron rusts rapidly if not cleaned 

 and dried with the greatest care. We have found 

 the tinned iron to answer well if well washed and 

 dried after use. One piece will last a season. 



After washing through the sieve, allow the pulp 

 to stand for a few minutes, and the meat will have 

 settled to the bottom of the pan ; pour off the 

 clear water and the meat is ready to be fed to the 

 young fishes. But in the feeding great care must 



