REARING THE YOUNG FRY. 1 99 



not always die, but I do not think them worth the 

 trouble of raising. The best thing to do with them 

 is to turn them out into a natural brook, and let them 

 shift for themselves. They may come to something 

 there. They never will in the nursery. 



9. Starvation. This, Seth Green thinks, is a prolific 

 cause of death among the very young fry, and it does 

 not follow that they will escape because their keeper 

 takes pains to feed them ; for, if confined in ponds 

 of considerable size, they will often wander off where 

 they can find no food, and from shyness and ignorance 

 will not come up to take it when offered. The con- 

 sequence is that they are soon carried against the 

 screens, or drop down dead from exhaustion, forty- 

 eight hours of fasting being enough to reduce very 

 young fry to a state of extreme weakness. 



I have often thought also, that, when very hungry, 

 they will eat things which do not agree with them, 

 and so hasten their death. 



The remedy for the danger of starvation is to con- 

 fine the trout where they will take their rations regu- 

 larly and feed them faithfully. Then you will not lose 

 any from this cause. 



10. Ulcers on the head. This disease has already 

 been mentioned in the chapter on growing young 

 trout. It usually attacks the fish, if at all, when they 

 are young, and always comes when the water gets 

 foul from decaying food, and when the fish have no 

 earth. Great numbers died of it before the use of 

 earth as a remedy was discovered. As this disease 

 progresses, the fish becomes lank in body, its head 



