REARING THE YOUNG FRY. igi 



were killed, deliberately killed, by external causes, 

 just as much as lambs or chickens are killed by 

 storms, or by parasites, or from starvation or poison. 

 It is true that they are killed from ignorance of their 

 wants, and not from wilful neglect, but it is the same 

 thing abstractly, — the cause of death is external and 

 removable, and not innate and necessary. Their 

 wants are peculiar, of course, and more occult and in- 

 tangible than those of pigs and colts, and to a begin- 

 ner it will sometimes seem as if they died without be- 

 ing diseased. But if they were as large as pigs and 

 colts, and could be studied as easily, I do not think 

 their wants would be found to be any more mysteri- 

 ous or peculiar ; and if the causes of disease could be 

 magnified, so as to be observed and studied clearly, I 

 think that no more trout would die when nothing was 

 the matter with them. 



I am furthermore convinced that study and expe- 

 rience will eventually clear up this subject, notwith- 

 standing the difficulties which surround it, and that 

 at some time it will be known how to raise trout, and 

 make them live, as well as it is known how to raise 

 turkeys and chickens. I believe that there are energy 

 and intelligence enough now interested in the cause 

 to accomplish this end. I take this ground, partly 

 because any other is unphilosophical and uncompli- 

 mentary to the intelligence of those who are study- 

 ing the art, and partly because the facts of experience 

 confirm it. Who that sees the healthy young fry and 

 yearlings and two-year-olds in Dr. Slack's ponds in 

 New Jersey, or at Mr. Dexter's at West Barnstable, 



