REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 163 



You need not give yourself any trouble about the 

 matter, till you see them all up in the water, balancing 

 themselves nicely, and heading bravely against the 

 current. If you now throw in a little food, or any 

 fine particles, indeed, of anything whatever, they will, 

 if they are ready to eat, instantly turn out of line to 

 seize the particles floating by them. 



If they do this, you may know that it is time to 

 feed them. If they pay no attention to what they 

 see in the water, let them go for that day, and try 

 them again the next, and so on, till they leave their 

 places to snatch it, and from that time feed them reg- 

 ularly every day. Once will be enough the first day, 

 twice the second, and, after that, four times a day for 

 two months. From this time they should be fed two 

 or three times daily until cold weather.* I think the 

 best food for them at first is liver, and curd made 

 from sour milk, mixed in about equal proportions, 

 or, still better, with two parts liver and one part curd. 

 The young fish at this age, as may be supposed, can 

 take only the finest particles of food. The curd, 

 therefore, should be made as fine grained and moist 

 as possible. The liver should also be reduced to the 

 smallest possible particles. This is accomplished in 

 various ways, but the way that I have found the most 

 satisfactory and the most expeditious is to grate the 

 liver on a common tin lemon-grater or cheese-grater. 

 You must be careful to have the holes small enough 



* Young living perch and suckers would probably make the 

 best possible food for very young trout fry, and could be obtained 

 in vast quantities. See Appendix IX. 



