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A FISH FARM. 203 
the fountain head of the stream. Two ponds have thus far 
been made by excavation, each about forty feet long by 
twenty feet wide, and from three to four and a half feet 
deep. They are connected together, the same water being 
used for both ponds. The supply of water is about eighteen 
square inches, and is taken from tanks made of plank, vary- 
ing in size from ten to fifteen feet in length, and from four 
to ten feet in breadth, sunk in the soft mud at the points 
where the springs came to the surface, and as deep as was 
hecessary to reach the substratum of sand, which was gen- 
erally about five feet. These ‘tanks have no bottom planks, 
and the water wells up through the sand at the bottom, form- 
ing reservoirs of living water of even temperature, summer 
and winter, and not subject to freshet or variation in quan- 
tity. The temperature of the springs varies but little from 
48° throughout the year. 
There are now about seven hundred parent trout in the 
two ponds, ranging from three-quarters of a pound to three 
Pounds in weight. It is calculated that the first pond will 
sustain over 2000 fish of the larger size, while in the second 
three times that number of smaller fish will thrive. This is 
allowing one large fish or three of the smaller size to the 
cubic foot. 
They.are fed daily with live minnows and shrimp caught 
9n the adjacent salt marshes, or, when they cannot be con- 
veniently obtained, with chopped liver, the roe of codfish, 
ete. The ponds are stoned, and one of them which was 
built in low wet land, is cemented on each side of the stones. 
Having learned by former experience that trout will spawn 
in the pond, and the ova: thus be lost if its bottom is sandy 
°F gravelly, we covered the bottom, where its nature seemed 
to invite the fish to this operation, with flat stones, thus 
obviating the difficulty so far as we have observed. Aquatic - 
Plants, mosses, etc., were introduced and now cover the bot- 
tom, not only providing a large amount of food in the form 
x Crustacea, snails, ete., but also supplying to the water 
