Trout Breeding. 113 



vated, dependent upon the extent and character of the 

 water and the inclination of the owner as to the amount 

 of time he cares to devote to it, and the expense which 

 he is wilHng to incur in beginning, which, as in most 

 other affairs, bears some relation to the prospective re- 

 sults. With proper facilities, intelligent fishculture 

 will prove as remunerative as any of the minor indus- 

 tries of the farm, such as bee and poultry keeping, but 

 it is only very rare and exceptional places where it can 

 be made a separate and distinct business which would 

 warrant a person in devoting his whole time to it. 



Where the spring rises upon a farm and flows some 

 distance through it, with some fall and space to make 

 ponds, the conditions are most favorable. It is very 

 difficult to give directions for making trout ponds 

 which will be applicable to all places, but it is safe to 

 say that the very worst location and form for them is 

 in a ravine where they are made by a series of dams 

 thrown across. Such an arrangement is sure to come 

 to grief, sooner or later, and if the dams are so strongly 

 made as to resist an unusual flood from suddenly melt- 

 ed snow, or heavy rains, then the leaves and other riff- 

 raff will clog the screens until the increased pressure 

 carries them away and the fish have a chance to escape. 

 The smaller the trout the more difficult it is to confine 

 them, not only on account of their ability to escape 

 through a small opening, but in consequence of their 

 desire to continually seek that opening — a desire which 

 is intense during their first year of life, but which de- 

 creases until it is so much diminished that large fish, of 

 say three-quarters of a pound, can hardly be driven 

 from deep water. 



If only one pond is contemplated in which the fish 

 are to be placed, to seek their own food and care for 



