How to obtain it. 107 
with yearlings. Strong, well bred, and healthy fry, are very good 
for stocking waters that do not contain any fish. 
In cases where other fish are present it is needful to take 
care that the fry are not devoured by them, and this may be done 
by planting them in the stream feeding the pond, or in some 
small tributaries, where they will soon learn to take care of 
themselves. Instinctively they soon do this, and I will guarantee 
that a lot of fry in good condition will, if properly turned out, 
make a considerable addition to the crop of large fish in the 
future. It is because fry have been injudiciously turned out, on 
the one hand, that they have often not produced the desired 
results, while on the other they have not been in condition, and 
so have had little chance, if any, of surviving all the dangers to 
which they are exposed. I have again and again met with people 
who have hatched a quantity of trout ova and kept the fry in 
rearing boxes, where they have been fed until they began to die 
off. They have then been at once turned out into the lake or 
stream for which they were destined. Is it to be supposed for 
one moment that they would cease dying after being turned out? 
I say, no! most emphatically. Probably it may be the means of 
saving some of them, but the mischief has been done, and it is 
impossible to undo it. Fry so reared are not in condition for 
turning out, and therefore the planting of them results in failure. 
They have been fed on various artificial foods, and the working of 
their delicate little stomachs sadly disorganized. This course of 
unnatural diet has at last upset them to such an extent that they 
begin to die off. It is much better to turn them out just before 
they begin to feed, that is, before they have quite absorbed the 
umbilical sac. 
Stocking with yearlings is a simple and easy matter; any 
intelligent keeper can do the work successfully. But with fry it 
is an entirely different affair. It does not matter how intelligent 
the operater may be, unless he has a fair knowledge of what he 
is doing, the chances are that some mistake may be made which 
will frustrate his good intentions. I have now stocked the same 
waters with ‘fry for many years in succession, and have got 
excellent results, but they have been introduced at the right time, 
as well as in the right place, and in the right manner. 
