104 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



the time I began told me that "water is never too cold 

 for a trout, nor too warm for a sucker." He was wrong 

 about trout, for they will develop faster in a tempera- 

 ture of 65° Fahr. than in one ten degrees lower; their 

 life is more active and their digestions are consequently 

 quicker, hence their growth is greater. 



In its most southern habitat our brook trout excels 

 its more northern kinsman, if food is equally plenty in 

 both cases and if there is some depth to the water, for 

 trout in mountain streams never grow large. 



AUTOMATIC FEEDERS. 



An automatic feeder would be a desirable thing, but 

 a perfect one has not yet been found. When in charge 

 of the American fishcultural display at the World's 

 Fisheries Exhibition in Berlin, in 1880, I saw a Ger- 

 man device to lift a gate and let out food at intervals, 

 regulated by a water-wheel, but it dropped it all at the 

 head of the trough, where the strongest fish got the 

 first whack at it and grew stronger and more able to 

 sustain their advantage. Then there was an arm on a 

 universal joint which dipped a spoon into the food, 

 carried it over the trough and spilled it. 



All these things are useless ; it is the small fellows 

 down at the lower end which need to be fed as well as 

 the others ; neglect of them means death or a stunted 

 lot of yearlings. The fish in a trough must have an 

 equal chance to get food, and 'any feeder which only 

 feeds at the head of the trough is good for nothing. 

 There is nothing like an intelligent man to do this 

 work and to see fair play in all parts of a -pond or 

 trough. 



