70 TROUT CULTURE. 



Then there is no bother about acclimatization, no 

 risks from change of temperature, hardness of water, 

 or the hundred and one other sources of danger to 

 young fish life that do so constantly beset it under 

 circumstances of sudden change. Fry come from a 

 distance, perhaps at nightfall, and are turned in, 

 possibly by a gardener or keeper, who is in a hurry 

 for a meal, and he never thinks of such a thing as a 

 thermometer, even if he could see to read it, whereas 

 a sudden rise or fall of a few degrees of that instrument 

 may hash the whole lot. 



Our own opinion is that artificial spawning does an 

 unmixed good ; it saves fighting, saves eggs, is an 

 interesting amusement, as well as a source of possible 

 profit ; at least it has proved so wherever it has been 

 fairly tried, and an unbiassed judgment has been 

 formed as to its results. 



There are people, of course, who declare that such 

 proceedings ruin a stream ; but then there are people 

 who will cheerfully swear that black is white, or that 

 all the evils of a country proceed from the doings of 

 this or that political party (usually not that which they 

 espouse) ; but such may be left to grovel in their 

 ignorance. If you talk to them about a man being 

 a benefactor to his country who makes two blades of 

 grass grow where there was only one before, they will 

 probably agree with you ; but get to fishes and they 

 appear unable to recognize that any great blessing can 

 possibly emanate from hatching ninty-seven per cent, 

 instead of only two or three. What, they will ask, is 

 the use of turning into a stream such little mites of 

 things ? We answer by asking If hatched out 

 naturally, would they be any bigger ? They are kept 



