Trout Breeding. 131 



gots. Boxes or nail kegs, with slat- bottoms, were sus- 

 pended over the ponds, and in these the lights and 

 other refuse meat was suspended. The flesh flies blew 

 it and maggots hatched, grew and dropped into the 

 ponds when the time came for them to go into the 

 ground to enter the pupa stage. It was a perfect food, 

 the trout taking it readily and growing finely, but ther^ 

 was the objectionable odor. As the ponds were not 

 near my house, the smell was not so objectionable to 

 me, but there were many visitors, mere curiosity seek- 

 ers, who complained. But this was not the only reason 

 for its abandonment. Swarms of great carrion beetles, 

 over an inch in length, came and either ate the meat, the 

 maggots, or both, and I concluded that there should be 

 more maggots per pound of lights and meat than I was 

 getting, and I abolished the "maggot factories." 



Some years ago Mr. Charles G. Atkins, superinten- 

 dent of the United States salmon hatching station at 

 East Orland, Me., fed maggots, but he had his "fac- 

 tories" on top of a hill and brought down the product in 

 paiiS or boxes. I think he used smaller apertures and 

 excluded the beetles. 



Lest any one doubt the excellence of the larva of the 

 flesh fly, which we term "maggots," as fish food, I will 

 cite the fact that English anglers, who call them "gen- 

 tles," scour them in bran for a day or two and use them 

 as bait for several kinds of fish, and Izaak Walton 

 speaks of his "box of gentles." 



FISH. 



The flesh of fish, such as fresh-water chubs and 

 suckers, or salt-water kinds which have little or no value 



