GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 23! 



be taken off in one night and shipped to market and 

 sold. It is of no use to say that the law will keep 

 this kind off. The law has no effect on them. They 

 make a business of breaking the law, and if it does not 

 keep them from other property it will not keep them 

 from trout. 



The second class of poachers are those who steal 

 the fish partly for the lark of it, and partly because 

 they want the fish, and have not enough principle to 

 care whether it is right or wrong. The law restrains 

 these somewhat, and makes their visits scarcer, but 

 does not keep them off entirely. 



The third class are those who have principle enough 

 not to steal other things, but seem to have such a 

 passion for trout fishing that a stocked trout pond is a 

 temptation they cannot resist. I will only say of these, 

 that the sight of their names in print would be a start- 

 ling revelation of what otherwise respectable persons 

 can be sometimes tempted into doing. 



With these three classes of poachers about, your trout 

 are never secure. So I would say, make the safety 

 of your ponds just as near a certainty as you can. 

 Do not trust to people's being too honest, or too indo- 

 lent, or too unenterprising to take your trout, for there 

 are dishonesty, cunning, and enterprise enough in the 

 world to steal them twenty times over, and it is 

 more than likely that these qualities exist in the very 

 neighborhood of your ponds. The true plan is to 

 put temptation out of the way of all by interposing 

 impassable barriers between the trout and the thieves ; 

 and as a guide to what may be done, we will give a 



