114 PRACTICAL TROUT CULTURE. 



three feet high and two feet square ; in the bottom 

 is placed a drawer, about four inches deep, and 

 above this a strong wire grating, the wires being 

 about an inch apart. Numerous holes, one-half 

 inch in diameter, are bored in the sides above the 

 drawer, and the whole is surmounted by a cover. 

 In this, above the grating, any offal is thrown. 

 The maggots on attaining their full size drop 

 through the grating to the drawer beneath, which 

 can at any time be removed and its contents emptied 

 into the pond. This apparatus has been chris- 

 tened, by a facetious visitor, the Maggotometer.* 



But the emptying of the drawer is by no means 

 a pleasant task, and the old-fashioned method of 

 suspending offal from a wire directly over the 

 pond, thus allowing the maggots to drop, as it 

 were, directly into the mouths of the fishes, is per- 

 haps preferable. But to this there are many ob- 

 jections. A piece of rotten meat covered with 

 myriads of crawling maggots is by no means an 

 attractive object. The " maggotometer " may be 

 placed at some distance, that the odor may not 

 affect the nostrils of visitors, but the suspended 

 piece must be directly over the ponds. Again, 

 dogs will make violent efforts to obtain the, to 



* This word is not philologically correct, but as the term gasom- 

 eter is universally applied to an apparatus for holding and distrib- 

 uting gas, it may not be deemed inappropriate. 



