542 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The experience of all indicates that the continuation of vital functions 

 after removal from the living fishes or while retained in the body after 

 death, is retained much longer by the eggs than by the milt. When in 

 Mr. Atkins's experiments they were taken at the same time, it was found 

 that the eggs could be fertilized with fresh milt long after the stale milt 

 had lost all pov,'er. The series of experiments in different methods of 

 fecundation by Mr. Charles G. Atkins* prove the dry method to be 

 much superior in its results to the use of water at the time of express- 

 ing eggs and milt. This seems to be the uniform testimony of all who 

 have tested it. 



The apparatus used by Mr. Atkins, in 1871, was the ordinary trough, 

 but instead of covering the bottom with gravel, upon which to place 

 the eggs, he arranged strips of glass transversely in frames, which were 

 set all along the length of the trough, and about an inch above tlie bottom. 

 Upon these the eggs were placed, arranging themselves in parallel rows, 

 and having a free circulation of water on all sides. 



In 1872 a large building was erected,t troughs put in, and wire- 

 cloth screens or trays, on light wooden frames arranged about five- 

 eighths of an inch from the bottom, were fitted to the troughs. These 

 devices were improvemenrs, though not the first in use,| upon the 

 ordinary graveled troughs. 



The breeding establishments in different parts of the country received 

 the salmon-eggs from places where they were procured and partially 

 developed, and in this way they were distributed over a considerable 

 extent of country, the most extensive distribution being made in 1872, 

 under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries. 



In the first experiences of the cultnrists having the salmon in charge, 

 the young were retained for several weeks and even months after the 

 yolk-sac was absorbed, in many cases a heavy per cent, of losses occur- 

 ring during the time. A general conclusion was arrived at that it was 

 better to turn them loose much earlier, and this has become the usual 

 custom. 



In 1872 the operations for procuring the eggs of the salmon of the 

 Sacramento Eiver were begun by the United States Commission of 

 Fisheries, Mr. Livingston Stone being deputized for this work. The 

 principal results of his experiences benefiting the art of fish-culture 

 were the method of impregnating eggs in considerable masses and free- 

 ing them from the growth of conferva by washing them in a mixture of 

 sand and water. Mr. Stone attributes the origin of this suggestion to 

 Mr. Woodbury, a fish-cnlturist of California, whom he had employed to 

 assist him. 



The transportation of the impregnated eggs eastward, and planting 

 the young fishes in the eastern rivers in large quantities, which has 

 been undertaken by the United States Commission of Fisheries, is an 



See pp. 259 aud 282. t See note, p. 247. t Referred to on a subsequeutpage. 



