558 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



referred to on page 442, under the head of " The artificial culture of the 

 shad." 



In order to make the progress definite and rapid, a continued 

 series of systematic observations of the work in the hatching-house 

 is essential. And these should not be confined merely to what many 

 would consider the more practical points in the difierent processes, 

 but should embrace, in addition many of the minor conditions and 

 phenomena. For instance, in the I'ather full memoranda of each day's 

 work in shad-hatching in the New York State reports, we have the 

 date, number of shad taken, the number of ripe females, the number 

 of eggs, and the temperature of the water in the morning and at night. 

 From a long series of these observations carefully carried on through a 

 number of years, Ave might anticipate the working-out of many of the 

 relations between temperature of the rivers and the ascent of the shad ; 

 possibly, too, the relation of the ripening of the spawn in the ovaries 

 of the fish to the temperature, in which it is quite probable some very 

 interesting facts may be developed. For example, nearly all shad-fisher- 

 men have observed the fact that female shad with full roes are taken 

 to the very end of the fishing-season, and we do not absolutely know 

 that all the mature female shad ripen the ova and spawn before return- 

 ing to the sea. The addition to the memoranda of the number of ripe 

 male fish obtained woukl have been of value, as there is evidence indi- 

 cating that a considerable number of the males are ripe and begin losing 

 the milt before many females are ready to spawn; and toward the close 

 of the season it is often difficult to obtain a sufficient number of males 

 to impregnate the spawn ; the record of the number of ripe males 

 obtained would throw light upon this point. In the Massachusetts 

 reports are given the number of fish taken at each haul, and the time of 

 day when the haul was made. These afford data for a knowledge of 

 the movements of the fish while in the rivers, to what extent they are 

 nocturnal, and the like. Among other things, a record of similar char- 

 acter in a trout-hatching house might result in affording an accurate 

 comparison of the vigor and fertility of eggs from domesticated fishes 

 and from wild ones, together with other changes in the fish, as to time 

 of spawning and the like. 



E— ALPHABETICAL LIST OF AMERICAN FISH-CULTURISTS 

 AND OF PERSOJMS KNOWN AS BEING INTERESTED IN 

 FISHCULTDRB, 



1. — Names of persons who are or have been practically engaged in fish- 

 culture.* 



Ainsworth, Stephen H., West Bloomfield, N. Y. 

 Axtell, F. F., Harvard, McHenry County, 111. 



'Corrections or additions, if sent to the United States Fish Comuiissioner, Washing- 

 ton, D. C, will be introdnced into future lists, which it is hoped will more completely 

 represent the statistics of fish-culturists. 



