1 16 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt WateY. 



Naturally sloped banks of soil, sodded to below the 

 water's edge, are best for all ponds over 100x200 feet, 

 but surface water must be kept out. All ponds of the 

 size named I call "large," because when we come to 

 consider the "small ponds" of the professional fish- 

 culturist it will be found that they are so narrow that 

 every fish in them may be seen at all times. 



The single large pond can only be worked to its 

 greatest capacity by having a hatchery, taking and 

 hatching the eggs, rearing yearlings and turning them 

 out in the following spring after the water has been 

 drained off and all trout of the previous year taken out, 

 thus raising and marketing two-year-old trout each 

 year, and a trout above that age is worth no more than 

 any other fish, in market. See chapter on "Market- 

 able Trout. " All trout ponds should be drawn down 

 once a year, or the trout will have a muddy flavor from 

 decaying vegetation. 



The bottom of the pond should be flat, if not level, 

 and the fish should be removed with a net, instead of 

 draining off the water to take them out. One of my 

 mistakes will illustrate this : An original idea, one of 

 those which so often come out of the little end of the 

 horn, was to have a drain-pipe at the bottom of the 

 pond stopped with a plug, and then make a deeper 

 place in the centre, so that when the water was drawn 

 off the fish would be all there ready to be dipped out 

 with a hand or scoop net. What could be more handy ? 

 An improvement! After being in use three years it 

 became necessary to take out the large trout and trans- 

 fer them to another pond, and the water was drawn off. 

 When about a foot was left the fish began to get 

 alarmed and rush around, stirring up the water, which 

 had appeared like crystal, until the motion of the fish 



