GROWING THE LARGE TROUT. 23 1 



places they can be obtained in vast quantities, and are 

 the cheapest food that can be had. These are excep- 

 tional localities, it is true ; but in almost all brooks they 

 can be collected in considerable quantities by shutting 

 off the stream above, and netting them out of the little 

 pools in which they are trapped by the receding water. 



The use of live minnows in large ponds has been 

 objected to on the ground that minnows, living on 

 the same insects and other food as the trout, rob the 

 trout of what they would otherwise get themselves. 

 This objection has some weight, it is true, in itself; 

 but it is more than offset by the value of the min- 

 nows to the trout. The minnows more than com- 

 pensate in themselves to the trout for what they 

 eat. I would give the trout all the minnows I could 

 get. 



There is another objection which deserves more 

 consideration, and this is that in amateur trout ponds, 

 where large and small trout are kept together without 

 sorting, the habit of feeding on minnows may encour- 

 age the bad habit, in the trout, of feeding on each 

 other. In this case I would take a day or two for the 

 work, and sort the fish thoroughly, and then let them 

 have the minnows; but if this cannot be done, per- 

 haps the objection against the minnows holds good. 



3. Fish-flesh ground up. This is undoubtedly good 

 food for trout, and in some districts fish are so plenty 

 that it is the cheapest and most accessible food. For 

 instance, on the Mirimichi River, where smelts are used 

 to manure the land, or on the Missisquoi, where a large 

 sturgeon can be bought for a dollar, and perch for 



