MILNER ON THE ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF THE SHAD. 445 



Experience only will enable one to jndge from their appearance in the 

 water as to the numbers that have been put into a can. 



The principal means for sustaining life and vigor in the fish is afford- 

 ing them supplies of fresh water. Minute as they are their gills are 

 developed and their breathing exhausts the respiratory gases from the 

 water more or less rapidly according to the numbers in the can. Even 

 the ova, it has been proven by experiment, utilizes a small portion of 

 oxygen from the air. 



A reserve-can is required for every five or six cans of fish, which should 

 be filled with water at the stations, generally where the locomotive takes 

 wood or water or where meals are afforded, the attendants remembering 

 to fill the can first and eat the meal afterward. A pailful or two may 

 often be obtained at minor stations. 



The tube is put into the can, hanging by the hook from the top so as 

 not to roll about and bruise the young fishes, and one end of the rubber- 

 pipe inserted in the tube. Apply the mouth to the other end of the 

 hose and suck until it has filled with water; the end is to be at once 

 lowered into a pail, when the water will run freely until the pail is full. 

 This water is to be thrown out at the door of the car and the same 

 quantity of fresh water replaced from the reserve-can, filling a dipper 

 and lowering it to the surface of the water in the fish-can before it is 

 emptied, until sufficient has been afforded. 



An examination of the bottom of the cans for dead fish can be made 

 by tying the rubber-hose to the end of a piece of lath, and then, while 

 guiding the end of the hose by means of the lath around the bottom of 

 the can, start the water running, and dead fish and settlings at the bot- 

 tom of the can can be drawn off into a pail. On a long journey, of five 

 days or more, the shad may be transferred from one of the fish-cans 

 by means of the siphon to the extra one, and the can be scoured clean 

 from slime and sediment, and the fish from another can being emptied 

 into it by the same means this can in turn be cleansed, and so on through- 

 out them all. 



In moving the cans from car to car or into a wagon, care must be 

 taken that they are carried upright, as the least spilling of the water 

 tlirough the crevice around the cover, if examined, will be found to con- 

 tain young shad. A spring-wagon should be used, if possible, in moving 

 them by this kind of conveyance, as the jolting of a common wagon will 

 be found to splash the water much more than a railroad-car, unless 

 driven very slowly. 



(22c.) Water adapted to youncj fish. — Tests made in keeping young fish 

 in diflerent waters prove that but little danger is incurred in using it 

 from any source where it is clean, of not too high or low a temperature, 

 and free from decayed matter. The clear water from springs and wells, 

 though nearly destitute of living forms, answers the very bt'St purpose 

 in carrying shad. Clear river-water full of minute forms of life is per- 

 haps preferable for fish after the yolk-sacks disappear. Seth Green, 



