GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 237 



inlets and outlets clear, you need not bestow a thought 

 on them for weeks. They do not require daily groom- 

 ing like a horse, or daily milking like a cow, or careful 

 housing in winter like sheep, or watching like poultry. 

 If you have made the ponds safe from the changes of 

 weather and the attacks of enemies, the trout will be, 

 summer and winter, their own keepers, with your as- 

 sistance once a day in giving them their food, and 

 twice a year in sorting them. They can even be kept 

 without eating for several days without the injurious 

 results which would follow similar neglect with other 

 domesticated creatures. There is also seldom or never 

 any sickness among large trout kept in suitable waters. 

 This is a very striking feature of trout growing, and a 

 very favorable one. It is astonishing how many you 

 can keep in a pond of good water the year round 

 without danger of sickness or loss by death. Fowls 

 confined in numbers get sick and die. Disease breaks 

 out and spreads among large flocks of sheep and herds 

 of cattle when confined, but you can keep thousands 

 of trout in a very small enclosure of good water in per- 

 fect health all jthe year round. Indeed, there is no 

 other creature above the grade of insects, except other 

 fish, that you can keep in such large numbers and in 

 so small a space with so little risk of disease and 

 death. This is one of the most remarkable points 

 about growing the large trout, and reduces the labor 

 of taking care of them to a minimum. To be sure, 

 the general work connected with keeping the large trout 

 is very considerable, such as taking the eggs, prepar- 

 ing the spawning-beds, and the like ; but the mere 

 daily care of the fish themselves is very trifling. 



