26 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



ii. Allow no hiding-places in your pond which you 

 cannot remove at pleasure. They almost always lead 

 to mischief. A dead fish, perhaps, will get in them 

 without your knowledge, and foul the water ; or a mink 

 will make use of them, and elude you for weeks, or, 

 more likely than all, a large cannibal trout will hide 

 there and prey on the smaller ones for months, undis- 

 covered by you. On the other hand, provide all the 

 movable hiding-places within your control that you 

 please, the more, up to a reasonable extent, the bet- 

 ter, but never let them get out of your control, or 

 exist without your having access to them. The safe- 

 guards against outside dangers, which all ponds should 

 possess, are very important, and would, perhaps, more 

 naturally come in here, but they will be considered 

 under the head of " Growing the Large Trout." * 



NUMBER OF PONDS. 



There is no regulation number of ponds for a trout- 

 grower to be governed by. The best rule is to build 

 all you want ; the usual number, three, recommended 

 in books, being no guide to go by. You will certainly 

 want three, and probably several more. I have often 

 found ten quite few enough. You may be sure of 

 this, that you will in time have two sizes of young fry, 

 two sizes of yearlings, and at least three sizes of older 

 ones, which should be kept apart. 



Besides the ponds for these, you will find a minnow- 

 pond, a pond for rare fish,f and two or three experi- 



* See pp. 245-253. 



t At the Cold Spring Trout Ponds there is a pond twenty feet 



