Practical papers—fish culture. 
399 
expect in every case that some at least of the fish should be vigor- 
orous and healthy, as it is hardly possible that all the eggs should- 
be imperfect. Whereas it is the general complaint of those who 
fail, that all their fish die together, and that they can raise none of 
them; and, still further, of two persons receiving eggs from the 
same batch, one will raise a good percentage and the other will 
raise none. Therefore it would seem to us that the fault does not 
lie in the egg or in any manipulation thereof. Neither can it be 
in any large number of cases that the water is unfit for them, be¬ 
cause they have been raised by different persons in water at vary¬ 
ing degrees of temperature and impregnated more variously with 
minerals or salts ; and still less can this be true, because successes 
and failures have been made in different seasons by the same per¬ 
son in the same waters. Neither do we believe that the failure 
lies in the matter of food, as they have been raised successfully on 
curd alone, on liver alone, on beef-heart alone, on beefsteak alone, 
on liver and curds, on heart and curds, on liver and sweet cream, 
and on all together. It therefore looks reasonable to suppose that- 
the failures must be looked for in the person feeding them. And 
this supposition is strengthened by the fact that some persons 
never fail to raise a crop and others always fail. Let us look at 
the facts in the case, and see what common sense will teach. 
Suppose that a man has eggs enough to hatch out ten thousand 
trout. During the period of sac absorption, if he attends to the 
flow of water and does not raise it too fast, he will lose but few, 
When the sac is nearly absorbed, and the trout begin to come to 
the surface, they must be fed. Now the question is what sub¬ 
stance to feed. Suppose our friend thinks, according to prevail¬ 
ing opinion, that curd does not contain nutriment enough, and de¬ 
termines to feed upon heart or liver or beef. In order to get this 
fine enough he chops it up with an old razor or with a chopping- 
machine or cleaver, and feeds it to the trout. That is, he throws 
it into the water for them to eat if they are willing, or if they can. 
We can see the trout eating greedily, and we also see falling upon 
the bottom a large proportion of the food which it appears the 
trout reject. Let us take a little of the preparation he is feeding 
and examine it, In most cases we shall find that it is composed 
of a few very fine particles mixed with a number of larger in the 
