How to obtain it. 245 
In order to avoid the chance of disease amongst young uout 
as much as possible, care should be taken to have good healthy 
eggs from well-selected fish, and not only this, but eggs which have 
been properly incubated in a well-appointed hatchery. Too much 
stress cannot be laid upon these points, for with weakly eggs taken 
from weakly ill-fed fish the grower has but a poor chance. There 
is a great art in feeding breeding trout, which is only acquired by 
long experience. To give them neither too much nor too little, 
and to give them just the right kinds of food, at just the right 
seasons, is a subject on which a book might be written. No book, 
however, will ever teach the uninitiated how to do the thing. It 
must be learned, as must many other things, by practice and a 
thorough training at some good fish-cultural establishment. When 
the trout have safely passed the crisis which occurs when artificially 
fed, that is a few weeks after commencing to feed, and which we 
call getting over the “‘ distemper,” the work becomes one of con- 
stant attention on the part of the attendant. The feeding of so 
many mouths, together with the cleaning of the screens and the 
regulation of the water supplies, takes up all his time; and it is 
most important that nothing should happen to the water supply in 
any way. Should it accidentally be stopped, even for a short time, 
great loss may ensue. Too much care cannot be taken so to 
regulate the intake that it cannot err. The choking of a screen 
may cause a pond to run over, which should also be carefully 
guarded against, and ought never to happen amongst a good set 
of ponds. Should all the necessary details be duly attended to, 
there is every prospect of a good turn out of yearlings, notwith- 
standing the delicate nature of the creatures we are dealing with. 
As they get older the danger of losing them rapidly decreases, and 
by August they should be comparatively safe, having by that time 
survived the dangers which fry are heirs to, and become yearlings. 
It is true they are not a year old, but a great change has come 
over them that entitles them to the name, which will be more 
fully explained in my next chapter. 
