136 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



PATENT FOODS. 



I have tried two kinds of patent food, or rather that 

 of two makers, who put up food for dogs and pheas- 

 ants. In both cases it was dried and full of small, 

 sharp bone. A trout can digest a soft fish bone, but 

 pieces of the skeleton of an ox or horse are a different 

 matter. As they could not give me the meat free from 

 bone we did not do much business. 



The following is from a circular : 



"Fine all-meat fish food, specially manufactured for 

 feeding fish from the time the young fry are hatched. 

 Used with the greatest success at the Caistor Fish 

 Farm, Lincolnshire, England, and at many other places. 

 Manufactured in five different grades Nos. o, i, 2, 3 

 and 4. No. o, finest ground for feeding young fry in 

 the boxes, up to two months old ; No. i, for feeding fish 

 from two to five months old; No. 2, for feeding fish 

 from five to eight months old ; No. 3, for feeding fish 

 from nine to twelve months old ; No. 4, for feeding big 

 fish. 



"Note. No. 4 should be soaked before it is given to 

 fish. Nos. i, 2 and 3 should not be soaked, but simply 

 thrown lightly on the water. The fish will take the 

 food as it gradually sinks to the bottom. Fish should 

 not have anything coarser than No. o for the first two 

 months after they are hatched." 



The food smells rancid, and the floating qualities of 

 some of it let it go to the outlet uneaten. As this food 

 appears to be made from a whole horse thrown into a 

 grinder, of course the bone cannot be separated. The 

 bone is good for poultry, but is too sharp for'the in- 

 testines of a trout, young or old. 



