nine months if the trout is fed upon soft food.
Probably, also, a certain amount of atrophy and dilatation of the
stomach wall is produced. If my observations are correct, so also is the
conclusion that a trout which cannot digest hard food, of which a great
part of his natural food consists, will not have a really fair chance
when turned out. Therefore, I say, turn out your trout in November,
unless you can feed them on such food as shrimps, snails, bivalves and
_Corixae_; and if you stock with "ready made" fish, stock with yearlings
in the late autumn.

The turning out of his fish in November will also allow the amateur
plenty of time to prepare his ponds and apparatus for next year's
operations. If the ponds are made on a stream, probably the very best
place that can be chosen is where there is a fairly sharp bend in the
stream just below a fall. An artificial fall can often be made where the
banks are high by damming up the stream several feet. Care must be
taken, however, to avoid any risk of the ponds being flooded.

CHAPTER V

TROUT. REARING PONDS, BOXES, AND HATCHING TRAYS

Having decided upon a suitable spot, the amateur must now proceed to
make his ponds. Whether he derive his water supply from a spring or from
a stream, the amateur had better bring it into his ponds through a pipe.
A three-inch pipe will be large enough for a pond thirty feet long,
three feet wide, and two feet deep at the deepest part. It is a good
thing for the water to fall, some inches at any rate, through the air
before it reaches the pond, and in a series of ponds with only one
supply, the water should flow through an open trough with stones and
other impediments in it, between the ponds. The ponds may be lined
entirely with brickwork faced with cement, and in this case the sides
should be made perpendicular. The cement should, however, be exposed
freely to the action of the running water for a couple of months at
least before any ova or fry are introduced.

Another plan, and a simpler and less expensive one, is to face only the
ends of the ponds with brick and cement work, carrying the brickwork
into the earth on each side, as shown in Fig. 1. In this case the sides
of the ponds should be slightly sloped as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. It is
advisable if possible to make the outlet at the level of the bottom of
the pond, if the pond is lined with cement, but if the pond is only
cemented at the ends, it is better to have one in