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seen trout grown from the e^g and kept in confinement 

 and well fed on beef lights and hearts that weighed in 

 the spring after the year they were born, or say when not 

 over fifteen months old, as much as three quarters of a 

 pound in some instances, and all averaging a half pound 

 apiece. Judging from those in our possession, we suppose 

 a trout to be in its prime when it is from three to ten 

 years old. The size is largely a question of food. 

 On Long Island where they have access to the salt water 

 and feed on the numberless small fish and Crustacea 

 abounding in the sea, the trout are notoriously large, 

 while in the mountain streams, where the food is scarce 

 and precarious, it is just as well known that the trout 

 are small. 



The size to which a trout may grow is not very well 

 settled ; so many " fish stories " have been told that dis- 

 credit is thrown even upon well authenticated assertions. 

 Trout may in exceptional cases and in large waters attain 

 the weight of eight or ten pounds, but a four pound trout 

 is generally considered to be of pretty good size. This 

 question of size is interesting rather to the sportsman 

 that to the trout farmer. It is considered that small 

 trout are the best to eat, those from one-quarter to one- 

 half a pound. A better market may always be found for 

 fish of this size than for any other. There is only one 

 market in the United States where there is a demand for 

 very large trout, and that is New York, where the largest 

 trout sell the most readily. Besides, fish of small size 

 are the handiest to manage on the spawning bed, and 

 more of them can be raised. If the spawn is extracted 

 by hand, the difficulty in handling a two pound trout is 

 very great and increases very fast as the fish grows larger. 

 Not only is it troublesome to handle the large ones, but 

 the danger of killing them 13 much greater ; so that, in 



