38 Modern Fishculture in Fresh ana Salt Water. 



recall camp scenes without getting my family to enjoy 

 them as I do. I don't believe that any amount of trout 

 worth considering could be sold in New York a week 

 before the legal opening, for reasons given above. 



As I have said, the demand for brook trout in sea- 

 board cities is largely a sentimental one, based on the 

 long trip into the wilderness, the return to the half-sav- 

 age life of primitive man and the appetite which comes 

 from a day's tramp, when trout must be cleaned and 

 cooked before the hungry angler eats; and then he re- 

 members a fish that is half raw and half burned as one 

 of the greatest delicacies which ever came his way. In 

 his club or cafe, when his appetite was clamorous for 

 something, no matter what — when he could eat a mule 

 and chase the rider — he would send the fish back to the 

 kitchen ; if he wishes to eat trout he wants it properly 

 cooked — when he is in the city. 



I am not an iconoclast. On the contrary, it is my na- 

 ture to be a hero worshiper, but the statements made 

 above are what I believe, and I will venture to incur the 

 wrath of the angler who takes his trout in the rushing 

 waters of the brook by saying: It is the fashion, my 

 dear brother — and I can say with Walton, "I am, sir, 

 a brother of the angle" — for you to decry all pond, 

 or liver-fed trout, as unfit to eat. This entirely accords 

 with what I have said before, and is just what you might 

 be expected to do ; luU as Prince Hal says to FalstafI : 

 "Mark how plain a tale shall put you down." During 

 the years that I have attended Blackford's trout open- 

 ings I have eaten trout from many places, wild and 

 liver fed, and as they were marked by mutilations of the 

 caudal fin it was interesting to hear the comments of 

 the dozen or more anglers each year. 



It is my opinion that a plump liver-fed trout is the 



