238 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



2. Avoid overstocking. There is no indiscretion in 

 the world so easy for a trout breeder to fall into as 

 overstocking his ponds when he has many fish and not 

 much water*; but I need not say it is a fatal mistake. 

 There is usually a very dry hot time in the summer, 

 which, if not a fiery furnace, is, at least, a watery fur- 

 nace for the trout to pass through ; and it is often hard 

 in the fall, winter, or spring, when the deceitful water 

 is cold, and there is plenty of it, to realize what the 

 inexorable exactions of this ordeal will be ; and al- 

 most without knowing it the trout breeder will some- 

 times get more trout into his stream than it will carry 

 through the summer. Therefore the beginner cannot 

 too carefully impress on his mind the simple truism 

 that no stream can be relied on for more than what it 

 will do in the hottest and dryest day of the hottest 

 and dryest season of the year, and this principle 

 should be acted upon. If, however, you ever happen 

 to have on hand more than you know you can sum- 

 mer in your stream, there is a very simple way to get 

 over the difficulty, and one which I have often re- 

 sorted to, namely, to turn some of the trout out to 

 pasture through the dry time. I mean by this to 

 carry them off to some neighboring brook where 

 you have provided a temporary enclosure for them 

 through the dangerous crisis ; this is not a difficult 

 matter, and if you want the spawn from them in the 

 fall it is expedient to do it, taking the precaution to 

 remove them on cool mornings when the transporta- 

 tion and handling will not be likely to hurt them. 



* See remarks on water supply and droughts, pp. 11-12. 



