24 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



and is always seeking to run in a different channel 

 from that artificially provided for it ; and if there is 

 a weak spot anywhere about the sides of the dam 

 or pond, the water will find it, and sooner or later, 

 with the help of muskrats and frost, will bore a hole 

 through it, and very likely this will happen in some 

 place where you have never dreamed of its going. 

 Once having gained an advantage, it never loses it, 

 but will render your pond more and more unsafe, 

 till you make an entire reconstruction of it or aban- 

 don it. 



Employ an experienced man, then, to build the dam, 

 if you must have one, and tell him to make it doubly 

 safe ; and even then, if your experience is like mine, 

 you will be sorry you built it. 



9. The shape of the ponds should be adapted to 

 your water supply. If you have plenty of water at a 

 low temperature, build the ponds of any shape you 

 like so that they are not too large. If your water 

 supply is small and cold, make your ponds narrow 

 and shallow. If the supply is small, and liable to 

 heat up, make them narrower still, and deep. Indeed, 

 a deep ditch is the best thing where you have neither 

 cold nor plentiful water. With average water, experi- 

 ence favors oblong ponds, not over twelve or fifteen 

 feet in width, nor over three or four feet in depth, 

 and of any desirable length ; these ponds can be 

 easily inspected, easily swept with a seine, and will 

 have no places of concealment for the fish to hide 

 away in. 



I think it is a good plan to have the ponds deepest 



