dl 
Mr. MatTHER—This subject of food is the one import- 
ant subject. It has been stated several times that in 
Europe there is somebody who has a system by which he 
breeds insect life and small crustaceans, and drives his 
little fry from one post or point to the other. I have 
investigated to some extent, and I never could find any- 
body that could show that it was a practical thing to be 
done. Of course wild trout feed largely upon insects, 
but I have never seen any way clear to breeding insects 
in quantities sufficient to feed any number of trout. If 
a man has a pond with only four or five thousand trout 
in, it is possible there may be insect life enough to sup- 
port them, But I did try years ago—it must have been 
twenty years ago, I think—to breed mosquito larve for 
trout; it was very good food for the little fellows; the 
_ only trouble was to get enough of it. Taking rainwater 
barrels, and straining them and getting the larvz out; 
and the little trout feed well on it. The trouble was to 
get it in quantities—to get pounds of it. Another trou- 
ble is that the mosquito larve does not come quite early 
enough for those that are in the earliest stages and begin 
to want food. ; 
But the May-fly and its larvae are excellent food for 
trout. I have seen them on the Hudson River when I 
have been hatching shad; at nights they would some- 
times darken our lanterns, and wash up along the shore 
the dead bodies in such quantities so that you might smell 
them. Along the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers they 
are known as the Eel-fly. But how to propagate those 
things, to get enough so you could estimate it by pounds, 
I really don’t see the way, but I should like to very much. 
Mr. GitBertT—It has been my experience in regard 
to freshwater shrimp, we always find them in every 
good trout stream—in Massachusetts especially. Trout 
must have a temperature of water not above sixty-five 
degrees at any time, but rather a temperature of not far 
from fifty degrees. They will germinate, thrive, breed 
