BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 35 



9.— PROSPECTUS OF STRIPED BASS OPERATIONS FOR THE SEA- 

 SON OF 1885. 



By S. G. WORTH. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



To conduct a season of entirely successful work at Weldon, N. C, in 

 propagating striped bass, the following list of employes would be re- 

 quired : A captain in charge of force who is conversant with the general 

 methods in detail, two hatchery experts, and an ordinary person to 

 help them, and, in addition, four good spawn-takers, who should attend 

 daily the fishing canoes and slides on the falls immediately at Weldon. 

 The hatchery should be located at the mill premises of Maj. T. L. 

 Emry, of Weldon, where there is plenty of water, and fall to the amount 

 of 15 feet, available above hatching tables. Although the water is 

 furnished by a caual making out of the Eoanoke River 8 miles above, 

 it does not settle well, and at times is liable to be very muddy; and 3^et 

 such a small relative amount is required that the necessary filtration 

 can be easily accomplished. 



If there is an insufficiency of hydrostatic pressure precluding the ap- 

 plication of the new filter with which experiments are being made at 

 the Armory, I believe that no serious difficulty will be encountered from 

 excessive mud if the method used by me last spring is adopted. As 

 the results were satisfactory, I think it" is well to mention the manner 

 of extracting the bulk of mud. The method was extremely simple. I 

 had wooden frames made of inch-square stuff, which, finished, were 30 

 inches square, to the number of about two dozen. On a third of these 

 frames I tacked coarse horse blanketing, and on the remaining number 

 I nailed equally common domestic cloth and canton flannel, and taking 

 half of each kind placed them one upon the other, the coarser ones 

 above, and turned the supply stream of water immediately upon the 

 uppermost one. While the process did not clear the water by any 

 means, it answered well ; but at the same time it is highly desirable to 

 have clearer water. The hatchery used last spring has only about 7 

 feet of available fall, and unless the automatic filter is required (which 

 for any work done there next year I would not consider necessary) there 

 is no apparent need of building any other hatchery. I am confident 

 that it fills all immediate requirements, and that the board of agricul- 

 ture would cheerfully enter into any arrangement with the United States 

 Fish Commission to further its purposes there. Of course, a larger es- 

 tablishment might be required after better fishing and greater expe- 

 rience in collecting ripe fishes have been secured. 



At Weldon the McDonald automatic jars were used in hatching the 

 eggs, and, as stated in my report, to secure good results it is only nee- 



