128 FISH CULTURE. 



where one wretched starveling only grew before, 

 wiU assuredly not be very far behind in his de- 

 servings. 



Leaving for a time the subject of water-weeds, let 

 us take other views of the necessaries for good water 

 cultivation. Many rivers are starved, in a great 

 measure, for the want of a few trees and bushes along 

 the banks, as foliage is one of the great purveyors and 

 providers of food for trout, and therefore, in many 

 places now destitute of it, and where the trout run 

 small, it should if possible be encouraged. For this 

 purpose few trees are so valuable as the pollard, 

 when it grows old. The trunk holds and conceals 

 myriads of grubs and beetles, which cannot fail to 

 some extent to find their way into the stream, and so 

 form food for fishes. Some people are very fond of 

 introducing minnows into their rivers and lakes, to 

 supply food for trout ; but minnows, unfortunately, 

 feed on precisely the same kinds of food as trout. 

 They are incessant rangers in search of food, and 

 very voracious, and before he becomes food in his 

 turn, probably a minnow of fair size will, at a very 

 low calculation, have devoured twenty times his own 

 weight of food ; and, consequently, instead of bene- 

 fiting the trout, the minnow has deprived him of nine- 

 teen times its own weight of varied food. This quite 



