68 TROUT CULTURE. 



Many old houses, especially in their lower regions 

 are infested by cockroaches or blackbeetles. They 

 are voted a pest, a scourge, and an awful nuisance by 

 all ; but the trout, when old enough to eat them, think 

 otherwise ; so a raid in the kitchen and sculleries may 

 prove beneficial alike to the inhabitants of both house 

 and ponds. We believe the following is the modus 

 operandi; unfortunately we are unable to speak from 

 experience, as the genius loci has used phosphorous 

 paste for many years, so that these charming creatures 

 are as rare as odoriferous at home. 



When all is quiet, and the faintest creak on the 

 stairs creates an echo, walk as softly as if picking lobs 

 from a lawn, in list slippers, or other noiseless foot- 

 coverings, and with a gauze net, such as is used for 

 clearing the feeding boxes, guided by the feeble blaze 

 of a night-light, steal into the kitchen or other rooms 

 infested and sweep the floor very carefully, exactly as if 

 catching fry. When the net is full it may be emptied 

 into a regular beetle-trap, or large spittoon ; anything, 

 in fact, which will incarcerate the beetles till wanted. 



The writer has been told that, in many old country 

 mansions, quarts may thus be obtained in a single 

 evening, the great thing being to go in quietly, shade 

 the light as much as possible, sit on the kitchen table 

 motionless until the confidence of the prey has been 

 perfectly restored, and then, and not till then, set to 

 work in a business-like manner. The authorities 

 below stairs may have to be compensated to some 

 extent, as in the " hurry of business " several squash- 

 ings of belated beetles may take place ; but that is a 

 very easy matter, if the quarry be so numerous that 

 the game is really worth the candle. 



