LXXIV EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



over to Central Station for distribution, and 441,000 sent directly to de 

 posit in the Potomac at Little Falls. 



Central Station. — To this station was allotted that section of the river 

 extending from Chapman's to Ferry Lauding. The methods adopted for 

 the collection of the eggs, as well as the apparatus in use for hatching 

 at the station during this season, are novel, and mark a substantial ad- 

 vance toward that concentration of work and economy in production 

 which is necessary in order that the results obtained may compensate 

 for the expenditures made in artificial propagation. What is now known 

 as the dry method of transportation was employed in the collection and 

 transfer of the eggs to Washington. Instead of being sent in vessels of 

 water by messenger, after being impregnated they are transferred to 

 shallow trays covered with damp cloth, and forwarded by the ordinary 

 channels of communication on the river, reaching the station at periods 

 from six to thiitysix hours after impregnation. On arrival at the sta- 

 tion they are immediately transferred to the automatic hatching jars, 

 by which the separation of the dead eggs is completely effected without 

 the use of scalp nets or other api^liances for the purpose, involving me- 

 chanical labor and constant attention. 



The methods of transportation employed and the ajiparatus for hatch- 

 ing in use at the station during the season have given complete satisfac. 

 tiou. The number of eggs received at the station during the season was 

 6,706,000. The number of fry hatched out, 5,393,000. 



The distribution of shad to new waters was made largely through 

 Central Station, the total number of fry distributed during the season 

 being 20,637,000. This total includes the plants made in the Potomac 

 Elver, but does not include those made in the Susquehanna Eiverfrom 

 the Havre de Grace Station. 



Of this total 800,000 were drawn from the Havre de Grace Station on 

 the Susquehanna, and 19,837,000 from the Potomac Eiver stations; the 

 Navy Yard Station contributing 14,444,000, and Central Station 

 5,393,000. 



The most notable feature of this distribution was the planting of large 

 numbers of fish in single localities, instead of distributing, as hereto- 

 fore, in smaller lots to a number of localities in the same stream. The 

 extreme distance of the distribution was the Colorado Eiver in Texas, 

 and the Smoky and Eepublican Eivers in Kansas. The total distance 

 travelled by the cars in this distribution was 12,192 miles; 9,730 miles 

 being made by car No. 1, and 2,462 by car ]So. 2. The total number of 

 shad fry produced during the season of 1882 at all the stations, and in- 

 cluding those deposited directly in the Potomac and Susquehanna riv- 

 ers was 30,283,000. 



Battery Station. — In 1879 the shad and herring eggs collected from 

 the fish taken on the Chesapeake flats and procured from the large 

 seines hauled in the neighborhood of Havre de Grace, Md., were hatched 



