fHow to obtain it. 265 
to be a pond available into which they can be put. Pond room: 
is usually too scarce on a fish-farm, but should there be room for 
them anywhere they will make good fish if properly attended to. 
Sometimes a net has to be hauled under the ice. This is 
quite easily done. It usually happens that the water does not 
freeze much at the inlet end of a pond, and as those which mean 
business are rectangular in shape, the matter is a very simple one. 
Cut the ice along the sides of the pond and across the outlet end, 
where a slit should be made wide enough to allow for the insertion 
of the net. As soon as it is set the cork line should be slipped 
under the ice, and it can be hauled along quite easily, the ropes 
working in the slits made along the pond sides. At the inlet end 
there is usually plenty of open water to allow of the lifting of the 
net, and if not it is easy to remove a slab or two, or even to break 
the ice up, but not the slightest difficulty has ever arisen. The 
most dangerous effect of ice on a pond at such a time, is that it 
settles down when the water is let off, and without care and watch- 
fulness a fish or two may get smothered by being left underneath 
it, especially should there be any mud on the bottom of the pond. 
The male fish having now been separated, should be kept to 
themselves hereafter, as they do very much better away from the 
females. They do not fight so much as they do when mixed 
together, and are not so apt to be attacked by that well-known 
scourge, fungus (Saprolegnia). The food, too, can be varied a 
little. It is a great mistake to suppose that the males do not 
require well feeding. At the same time they need not be allowed 
to share all the rich and expensive food which it is necessary to 
supply to the females. The question of food for the large fish is 
a serious item, and is one of the heaviest expenses attached to the 
growing of trout. In addition to the beef, biscuit, mussels, etc., 
a large quantity of natural food can be produced on the farm. All 
the scraps of meat, sinew, gristle, and bone, may be largely made 
use of ; indeed, nothing should be wasted. A great deal of this, 
as well as the numerous rats and other vermin which should be 
trapped, may be converted into maggots, which are excellent diet 
for the fish. 
There are many clumsy ways of making these, but they are 
of little use practically. One or two proper maggot factories 
