80 
need the smallest proportion of hydrate of carbon; and 
farther, that the best fish food is that containing the larg- 
est proportion of nitrogenous materials. He says on page 
111: ‘*The most suitable articles of food are blood, horse 
flesh, fish guano, curds, meat dried and ground fine, refuse 
from slaughter-houses, etc. All these, however, require 
to be mixed with other articles of food containing less 
nitrogen, soas to restore the proper proportion of nutritive 
substances. On the whole, the food for carp will have to 
be mixed very much on the same principle as that for cat- 
tle and other domestic animals.’’ (In the passage just 
quoted Mr. Nicklas has reference to carp, but his remarks 
apply with equal or greater force to trout.) This is just 
what we claim to be doing in mixing mush with liver. It 
is probable that we are not at present combining these ele- 
ments in the best possible proportion for fish, the Neosho 
formula being 1.0 meat to 3.79 mush, yet I believe we are 
using a more rational and inexpensive diet than is to be 
found in any one element of animalsubstance. If you an- 
swer me that the trout is naturally a carnivorous animal, 
I reply by reminding you that the trout we feed in our 
ponds are domesticated animals. The jackal and the wolf 
are carnivorous, but your domesticated dog sickens and 
dies when restricted to the only food acceptable to his an- 
cient progenitors. 
Is the cost excessive? That is something every man 
must work out for himself. In commercial fishculture the 
problem is soon solved by reference to the cash account. 
In governmental work it is a matter between the authorized 
agents and the legislative body controlling. It depends 
upon so many things that no one can say the cost is or is 
not excessive except for a particular locality. A food 
which we can well afford to use in Missouri is found too 
costly in the East. 
Leaving then the question of expense, let us see wherein 
does the planting of yearlings lack analogy to other pro- 
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