REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 69 



very few were caught in a spawning condition. Between March 15 

 and April 30 the production of fry at the Jacksonboro field hatchery 

 amounted to 145,000 and at Branchville 125,000; both lots were 

 liberated on the spawning grounds in the Edisto River. 



The propagation of Atlantic salmon at the Craig Brook (Me.) 

 station was prosecuted to the same extent and alon^ the same lines 

 as heretofore. At the beginning of the year 968 wild aduUs of this 

 species, purchased during the preceding two months, were being car- 

 ried in the station inclosure awaiting the development of their eggs. 

 By spawning time in October the number had shrunk through losses 

 in the pound to 887, of which 491 were females. From this stock 

 3,739,180 eggs were secured, 3,404,258 fry hatched, and 3,028,858 

 voung fish distributed, the discrepancies in the numbers showing the 

 losses sustained through the incubation and fry stages. The entire 

 output of this species was Uberated, as formerly, in tributaries of the 

 Penobscot River, the distribution occurring in May. At the' close 

 of the fiscal year 835 adult fish to be used as a brood stock for next 

 season's suppl}^ of eggs were on hand in the station inclosure. 



During May and June 28,250,000 smelt fry were produced at the 

 Green Lake station, the eggs having been derived from a run of brood 

 fish in the vicinity. The output would no doubt have been much 

 larger had not a cold heavy rain occurred just at the beginning of the 

 spawning season, reducing the temperature in the brooks and causing 

 the run of fish to drop back into the lakes below, where many of them 

 were badly bruised on the sandbars in their attempts to spawn. 

 Fifteen million eggs were taken from a second run, and the remainder 

 of the collections were gathered on the gravel beds Avhere the fish had 

 congregated in the lakes. In making the distribution preference was 

 given to waters in the State which the Maine fisheries authorities are 

 especially desirous of stocking. 



A shipment of humpback-salmon eggs forwarded from the Afognak 

 (Alaska) station arrived at the Craig Brook and Green Lake stations 

 on November 17. The eggs laid down at the former, numbering 

 4,096,000, were in fine condition and the fry hatched from them were 

 liberated in March in tributaries of the Penobscot, the entire loss on 

 both eggs and fry during the time they were held amounting to only 

 134,561. Excellent results were also attained with the Green Lake 

 assignment. From the 4,106,752 egjrs received fry to the number of 

 3,950,150 were hatched and distributed, the rivers selected for the 

 plants being Dennys, St. Croix, East Machias, Narragaugus, and St. 

 George, all of them coastal streams in the State of Maine. 



OPERATIONS OF THE INTERIOR STATIONS. 



The total number of trout produced for distribution for the fiscal 

 year, including brook, blackspotted, and rainbow, amounted to 

 25,411,669, or an excess of 2,298,227 over the output of those species 

 in 1916. 



The brook-trout operations at LeadviUe station were unusually suc- 

 cessful, both as to the number of eggs taken and the results attained 

 during the hatching and distribution period. 



The hatchery at Berkshire, Mass., recently donated to the Bureau, 

 yielded an output of 256,995 brook trout, 179,995 of which were 

 fingerlings. 



