88 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



9. Protection against fungus. Last, but not least, 

 there should be no possibility of fungus getting 

 on to the young fish. I wish I could find words to 

 describe how infectious and how fatal this ubiquitous 

 enemy is to trout. If they are exposed to it, it will 

 attack their fins, gills, and every part of them, and, 

 long before they begin to show it by dying, it may 

 have spread over your whole brood, and rendered 

 them past saving even when its presence is first dis- 

 covered. I have known instances where persons have 

 found their trout dying, and upon moving them to 

 other places, and taking every pains with them, have 

 wondered why they continued to die, with everything 

 apparently favorable to their health, while the fact was 

 that the fatal fungus had fastened upon them and 

 doomed them to death days, perhaps weeks, before 

 they were first moved. You cannot take too much 

 pains to avoid fungus. The best way to do it — and 

 it is a sure way — is to char the inner surface of all 

 the woodwork leading to the rearing-boxes, and also 

 the rearing boxes themselves. This is a sure preventa- 

 tive, and the only satisfactory one I know of. 



The above points should be secured * in the rearing 

 box for the young fry, and when they are so secured, 

 if the water supply is right, the box may be regarded 

 as a suitable place for growing them in the first two 

 or three months, and much safer, as a general thing, 

 than a pond. I should call the maximum water 

 supply, just that amount which the fish will bear 



* It was to combine these points that the rearing box of the 

 Cold Spring Trout Ponds was contrived. 



