Trout Breeding. I63 



length of six to nine inches. That shows what breed- 

 ing from the best will do in a short time. If you have 

 two or three thousand spawners you need not fear de- 

 generation from in-breeding. You have few chances 

 of in-breeding. Suppose that six thousand persons, 

 equally divided as to sex, settle on a fertile island. 

 There is no chance for extensive in-breeding. Keep 

 your own stock ; breed from the best quick-growing 

 stock, and keep out all outside wild blood as you would 

 keep out blood from the wild boar among your im- 

 proved pigs, and go on and develop a breed of trout 

 that will be as far above their wild fellows as a setter 

 is above a wolf. 



If, however, you think you need new blood, don't 

 get it from wild trout, but from some other trout 

 breeder ; exchange males with him as you would swap 

 "roosters" with a neighbor. 



The breed of trout can never be improved by revert- 

 ing to wild stock. That fallacy has retarded trout cul- 

 ture many years. If your pond trout do not breed 

 freely it is evident that you are not giving them the 

 best treatment, either in food, flow of water, or some- 

 thing else that they lack. 



GROWTH OF FRY. 



Our trout on Long Island were a wonder to the men 

 from other hatcheries — five to six inches in October and 

 seven to nine inches at less than a year old — but the 

 warmer waters of Long Island had something to do 

 with this growth. No amount of food would produce 

 such fish in the cold waters of the Adirondacks. A 

 man who had a great reputation as a fishculturist about 



