22 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



You are never entirely safe from poachers, it is true, 

 but your security is much greater for living near 

 your ponds. Herons, kingfishers, minks, and other 

 destructive animals, are also less likely to frequent 

 your ponds if your house is near. 



Then, besides the general advantages of always 

 being near, and having your ponds in sight, you will 

 many times, when a sudden shower comes up, or in 

 some other case of need, go to the ponds, when, if you 

 lived farther off, you would, perhaps, not think it worth 

 the while. In the course of time the lack of this 

 advantage will surely show itself in your record of 

 losses. 



8. You cannot exercise too much caution in making 

 your ponds secure. To this end, I would recommend 

 that every pond and every aqueduct on your place be 

 built of two-inch plank. Had I followed this rule 

 when I began five years ago, I should have saved 

 thousands and thousands of fish. I have had all 

 sorts of ponds and dams, and have had them built by 

 experienced workmen, and warranted to stand twenty 

 years ; but not a single pond has held, out of twenty- 

 three that I have built, except my plank ponds. Some 

 of them have stood for five years to perfection. Mean- 

 while, there has been no end of vexation, annual ex- 

 pense, and loss, caused by the other ponds breaking 

 away ; and if I began over again, I would build every- 

 thing from beginning to end, that the water flowed 

 through, of two-inch plank. Stone, concrete, cement, 

 and similar substances, may answer as well, perhaps, for 

 single ponds ; but for a material to be used through- 



