26 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION 



SHAD-HATCHING AND CARP CULTURE. 



By S. G. WORTH. 



(Mcnthly report, Department of Agriculture, North Carolina, February, 18S2.) 



The chief feature of the present month in fish culture is the refitting 

 of the shad hatchery on the Albemarle Sound. Such changes and im- 

 provements are now being made that we hope to do a work double that 

 of any previous year. The hatching capacity, which is now four mil- 

 lion, will be increased to nine million a week. The additional space 

 added will be occupied by hatching vessels on a new and improved 

 method, the eggs being hatched in glass bottles. Fifty thousand eggs 

 are to be hatched in a bottle of one gallon capacity, and during the pro- 

 cess everything can be seen, and every dead egg removed without re- 

 moving the stopper. For this improvement the country is indebted to 

 Col. Marshall McDonald, of Virginia. 



The method heretofore followed consists in placing the eggs in large 

 cones, three feet high (the large end turned upwards), and applying a 

 constant jet of water in from below. The apparatus of this kind being 

 yet on hand and in good order, will still be used, the glass bottles being 

 added to afford greater capacity. This addition, with such other im- 

 provements as are now being added, will place North Carolina on a par 

 with any State, and I hope that results will prove us even in advance. 

 We shall be more completely equipped than we have ever been, and 

 with a stronger purpose. We confidently expect to double the catch in 

 our waters in a few years with native fish, introducing at the same 

 time such other fish as are considered of value. 



No hatching of the land-locked salmon or California trout was under- 

 taken the past season, owing to the fact that they were adapted to a 

 rather restricted class of streams, while the German carp will prove 

 more valuable in the same localities, and in the whole State besides. 

 The German carp will suit the western counties, and will at the same 

 time do equally well in every other quarter of the State. While the 

 land-locked salmon and California trout already introduced are most 

 excellent game fish, we have considered tha* but a secondary matter. 

 While they suit the cold mountain streams, they do not suit the middle 

 or lower streams; aud while the carp cannot be recommended especially 

 for mountain streams, there is not a mountain farm that does not pos- 

 sess every facility for raising them, and in quantities to supply a family. 

 We therefore deem it better to suspend the salmon and trout work for 

 one season, at least, and make necessary arrangements to propagate the 

 carp at home, and in larger quantities than we could hope to procure 

 them from the United States Commissioner at Washington. During 

 the past three months 2,500 l have been received and shipped by express 

 to all parts of the State. 



