572 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [20] ~ 
few days, however, will tell.the story, for the greater part of the loss 
during the period of incubation, be it much or little, will oceur within 
thirty days; the “ good,” “bad,” or “indifferent” lots received at dif- 
ferent times and from diverse sources, if kept separate, will soon be 
searched out. So it was in the present instance. The eggs from Al- 
pena, although a good lot, were decimated in numbers within the time 
above noted, while those from the islands proved to be unexceptionably 
good, the loss within the time mentioned not exceeding 5 per cent. Of 
the total loss of a million and a half in round numbers, during the sea- 
son, nearly one million died within twenty-five or thirty days. 
THE HATCHING-BOXES. 
There seems to be but one way to rid the hatching-boxes of the dead 
eggs, viz, pick them out one by one as they appear. For this purpose 
a shallow picking trough running parallel with the rows of hatching- 
boxes, and of the same length, is arranged along the side of the hatch- 
ing-room facing a row of windows. The little nippers or tweezers for 
removing the eggs are spherical at the picking end, so that when closed 
they are just large enough to hold the egg without crushing it. Girls 
were employed for picking the eggs—as many as were needed to look 
over all the hatching-boxes at least once in two days. 
The eggs, boxes, and trays received a weekly washing, a process ac- 
complished with the eggs by simply agitating the tray in a tub or tank 
of water. The tray is then transferred to the picking trough, a clean 
tray fitted over it and the whole quickly overturned and immersed in a 
tank of clean water, when the eggs will be changed to the clean tray. 
The compartments containing the hatch-boxes are provided with plugs, 
which, being removed, the whole is quickly washed and cleansed, a waste 
trough underneath running the entire length of the rows of boxes. 
It is of great importance that the dead egg should be removed very 
soon after the little white spot—the first positive evidence of its death 
visible to the naked eye—is apparent. This is rendered imperative from 
the rapidity with which confervoid growth develops on dead eggs lying 
motionless on the trays, and which, if undisturbed, soon reaches out 
* from an individual egg and embraces within its deadly grasp the circle 
of eggs surrounding it, and these again in turn soon destroy another 
circle, and so on. This growth starts much quicker and creeps out 
faster from eggs of the whitefish than from any of the large eggs of the 
Salmonide, as Salmo fontinalis, Salmo quinnat, Salmo iridea, &c., and 
the same rule holds good with respect te eggs of the whitefish incubat- 
ing in the jars, in which the morbid growth is usually delayed from 
five to ten days after the death of the egg, doubtless due to the con- 
stant motion imparted to the eggs by the upward current of water. 
From about the tenth to the thirty-fifth day the eggs in the hatching- 
boxes require special attention, for not only does the greatest mortality_ 
occur during this period, but.the contact of diseased growth is espe- 
