THE NURSERY. 83 



a. The hatching-house water is too cold and earthy, 

 if I may use the expression. 



b. If other hatching troughs work like mine, the 

 screens will clog up, and call for extra watching. 



c. The fish must be very much thinned out to make 

 this method work, and in this case the one removal is 

 not saved. 



d. The fry do not do so well, in actual practice, in 

 the troughs, as they do in the rearing boxes. I may 

 also add that Green's partner, Mr. Collins, sent last 

 spring for my rearing box to use at Caledonia. 



"My experience has all been one way in this mat- 

 ter. I have tried all kinds of ponds for very young 

 fry, and in every instance have lost most of them, 

 while in rearing boxes in most instances I have had 

 surprising success, the loss having been very small 

 indeed. 



I am aware that the experience of others has been 

 different, and that they have found ponds more suc- 

 cessful than boxes ; but I repeat, that I think the ponds 

 were exceptions, and that nineteen ponds out of 

 twenty are not safe for the very young fry. 



The use of rearing boxes is accordingly recom- 

 mended, in preference to ponds, for the very young 

 fish. 



The principles of the rearing box will be described 

 in the next few pages, 



REARING BOXES. 



A rearing box in its simplest form is very simple ; a 

 common soap or candle box, with a wire screen at 



