STOCKING. 135 



The Loch Leven trout (5. levenensis) is much 

 praised where it has been tried, and has suc- 

 ceeded, but whether this species (or, according 

 to some authorities, variety) of the ordinary trout 

 will eventually be the favourite for stocking 

 south country waters is, at best, doubtful. The 

 ordinary English trout (S. fario) is probably 

 the best of all, and, if carefully selected from 

 good strains, it is, under favourable conditions, 

 certain to produce satisfactory results. It is 

 said that the question of breed is not of para- 

 mount importance, although all of us have pre- 

 dilections for particular strains. Personally, I 

 prefer Wycombe trout to any other, but un- 

 fortunately these are no longer procurable in 

 any numbers, and the stock of fish in the lower 

 part of the Wycombe stream has been so fre- 

 quently decreased by accidents and pollution 

 that the local association has, I believe, turned 

 in store fish of other blood. 



It is, at any rate, essential that the parent importanceof 

 stock should not be a race of dwarfs, although stock. 

 whether the offspring of 71b. or 81b. trout will, 

 under similar surroundings and with an equal 

 supply of the same food, grow to a greater 

 weight than the progeny of the more ordinary 

 breeding fish of say i-^lb. to 2-^lb. is a question 

 worth proving by experiment. The leading 

 pisciculturists are fully alive to the importance 



