84 Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
ease of the brook trout, the number of brook trout in the control 
lot was very large. In the case of the silver salmon the control 
lot was just the same size as the experimental lots, 500 in each 
lot, and they had the same room. And the performance of the 
fish that were fasting was much above those that were fed. 
Mr. Talbott: It seems to me that it would be of some inter- 
est to know what the final effect on those trout might be. I 
know more about pigs than the raising of fish, and a pig ill-fed 
in its early months becomes permanently stunted. Is there no 
fear that starving the trout will so stunt the fish that it will 
never reach the size that it would otherwise reach at maturity ? 
Mr. Atkins: I think there is good ground for suspecting 
that it will have that effect. The experiments of 1904 were 
made in June and July, but I intended to carry all the fish 
experimented with, through to October, and then to weigh the 
different lots very carefully, and see which had gained the most, 
and how much the fasters had suffered in their growth during 
the season; but unfortuately the troughs were little experimental 
affairs, standing side by side, and were not guarded against each 
other; and too many fish jumped over from one to another and 
got mixed up, so that I could not rely on the results. This 
year, however, those lots are all to be carefully kept separate, 
and in October I shall weigh them all and then be able to answer 
that question. But to the eye they seem to be keeping up well, 
and we hope that even in the case of the longest fast, the fish 
will be pretty good fish when fall comes. Of course | do not 
wish to be understood as claiming that there is any likelihood 
of our finding any advantage in keeping fish fasting 19 or 20 
days — I do not expect that. I do not even expect that we shall 
find that it is any better for them to fast ten days; and perhaps 
it would not be quite so good on the whole, but I do think that 
there is a great probability of its proving finally that there is 
no particular hurry about turning the fish out in the beginning, 
and if it is desirable for any reason to interrupt feeding 1, 2, 
3 or 4 days, we need not fear any untoward results from the 
interruption. It may be necessary in case of the attack of some 
disease to put a group of fish on a limited diet, or have them go 
without food for a number of days; and if such experiments in 
