216 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



cloth stretched on very thin frames of wood, packed in a box imbedded in moss within 

 a refrigerator, and the whole kept by ice at a temperature a little above the freezing 

 point. Mr. Milner notes that "the eggs are left entirely undisturbed after they are 

 first arranged; the only care on the part of the attendant is to keep the temperature 

 above the freezing point." It is true the eggs necessarily occasioned very little care. 

 Once in two or three weeks the trays were overhauled and dead ova removed. Very 

 little confervoid growth appeared, and in March the eggs were removed to hatching 

 trays, where, in a very few days, the fry hatched. Other experiments were tried at 

 this time, such as placing the eggs in fine sand with a drip of water falling on the 

 case containing the sand and eggs. This period, up to the spring of 1873, is what 

 I term the first stage in whitefish hatching. 



We now come to the invention of the Holton, Clark & Williams box, a descrip- 

 tion of which you are all familiar with, and a model of which may be seen in the exhibit. 

 The Clark box was used successfully in hatching some 2,000,000 whitefish during 

 the winter of 1873-74, at which time my father and myself were engaged in hatching 

 for the Michigan Fish Commission, thus inaugurating the work of turning out white- 

 fish by the State. I quote from the Michigan Fish Commission report of 1874: 



During the winter of 1873-74 there were hatched at Clarkston, Oakland County, under the auspices 

 of the fish conunission, upwards of 1,500,000 of whitefish. The eggs were laid in the latter part 

 of Novemher, 1873, and commenced hatching the latter part of February. The hatching operations 

 at Clarkston last winter were eminently successful and have established, beyond all cavil or doubt, 

 the absolute feasibility of multiplying, to any desired limit, the whitefish, the acknowledged queen 

 of the lakes. 



The Holton box was not used to any great extent until the season of 1875-76, 

 when the Michigan Commission placed them in a newly constructed hatchery located 

 at Detroit, Mr. O. M. Chase, superintendent. The work of laying in the eggs and 

 hatching was very successful, and a large number were deposited in numberless lakes 

 and the Detroit Eiver. 



The Clark box was used the same season in successfully turning out upwards of 

 2,000,000 for the U. S. Fish Commission. 



The tray-box method of Holton, Clark & Williamson was of great importance in 

 economy of space, in the facility of manipulation of the eggs, and in saving expense, 

 because smaller buildings were sufficient for the accommodation of the apparatus, 

 from the compactness of which more labor can be accomplished than with the extended 

 trough method. 



The shipment of 21G,000 whitefish eggs made by the U. S. Fish Commission early 

 in February was not successful, as they arrived in bad condition. This lot was packed 

 upon alternate layers of sponge and eggs, the whole surrounded with fine sawdust. 

 Early in March another shipment Mas made of 110,000, which arrived in good con- 

 dition, being packed in moss. 



We now pass from the tray-box method to the more compact form of bulk hatching. 

 During the season of 1875-76, Mr. Oren M. Chase, of the Detroit establishment; Mr. 

 Welsher, of Wisconsin, and Mr. Samuel Wilmot were at work on a bulk hatcher for 

 the whitefish. Messrs. Chase and Wilmot continued these experiments, and the use 

 <»f l he Chase jar has become quite general, notably with the States of Michigan and 

 Wisconsin. Up to the period of bulk hatching of whitefish eggs the dead and fuu- 

 gused eggs were removed by tweezers, and it was necessary to devise some method by 





