95 



than in recent years, If started on terms of equality 

 the planted fry of to-day are less handicapped than 

 the natural hatch of their ancestors, and should pro- 

 duce a greater instead of a less percentage of 

 ;'esults. 



The tremenduous advantage of art over nature in 

 the propagation of white fish is unquestioned up to a 

 cei'tain point ; but there is a point where this sup- 

 eriority suddenly ceases. Where is this point ? Wheii 

 has this dividino^ line been. reached ? At what staoe do 

 the resources of art suddenly lose their cunning ? Is 

 It well along towa,rds the time of hatching, when the 

 embryos require no further manipulation or treatment ? 

 Ox is it at the moment of hatching, or five, ten, twenty 

 or thirty clays after hatching ? Little heed seems to 

 have been paid to this irnportant point, replete with 

 significance though it may be,.fQr until the past two 

 seasons, the disposition of the fry has almost universally 

 l^een gov,erned by tank capacities and transportation 

 facilities and a desire to make the widest possible dis- 

 tribution. As a result, considerable proportions of the 

 hatch have been massed by the millions in the narrow 

 and inadequate qqarters of hatchery tanks, held back 

 .as long as a feeble spark of life remained, unmindful of 

 the fact that to be oq an equal footing with nature's 

 fry, they should be liberated, almost at the moment of 

 hatching. , 



White fish fr)^ as such, are never stronger and 

 more vigorous than at the moment of hatching. We 

 .find it imperative in practice that they must be moved 

 at once if we would avoid losses in the house and on 

 the road. When denied access to natural food condi- 

 .tjons, as perforce they must be in hatcheries, and 

 massed in large numbers,, they grow visibly weaker 

 within fiv^ days, and in ten to fifteen days many die, 

 while the survivors are so weak and attenuated that 



