[29] PROPAGATION OF WHITEFISH AT NORTHVILLE, MIcH. 581 
“The eggs commenced hatching January 16, and about 10,000 are 
now hatched. I think we will save about 75,000 of them.” 
Without attempting to assign a reason for this great mortality, or 
whatever the cause may have been, certainly the rise in temperature 
from 38° to 44° cannot be charged with the loss, for this change should 
have produced no decided effect, except perhaps to hatch them out very 
freely, the eggs being quite well advanced. 
A second lot of a quarter of a million equally distributed on twenty 
trays was forwarded January 22. The first fifteen trays were covered 
as usual, z. ¢., damp canton flannel spread loosely over the eggs: On 
tray No. 16 the covering was drawn down so closely as to exert some 
pressure on the eggs, and secured to its place by cleats tacked to the 
frame; No. 17 was covered with flannel as usual, and the intervening 
space between it and the next tray above—about one-half inch—filled 
with moss; No. 18 had nothing whatever over it, that is, in the way of 
a cover; No. 19 contained a compartment 2 inches square, which was 
filled with eggs to the level of the frame, or about six layers deep; and 
No. 20, the bottom tray, was covered with flannel and one-half inch of 
_ snow firmly packed in. 
The following extract from letter of President Griffith, dated January 
29, shows results: 
“The last lot of white-fish eggs arrived in Louisville Tuesday the 
25th instant, at 84 a. m., and at hatch house 11 a. m., same morning. 
Temperature of air 26°, water 41°. Packing on top of trays dry, 
around trays damp. Temperature of trays 48°. Eggs all in troughs at 
2p.m. In trays from 1 to 15 inclusive were 17 dead fish and 183 dead 
eggs; in tray No. 16 were 2 dead fish and 12 dead eggs; in 17 were 2 
dead fish and 12 dead eggs; in 18 were 2 dead fish and 12 dead eggs; 
in 19 were 3 dead fish and 14 dead eggs; and in No. 20 were 7 dead 
eggs.” 
The loss throughout the case being merely nominal—a small fraction 
of 1 per cent.—and so uniformly distributed, the inference might be 
drawn that the manner of covering, or, indeed, the presence or absence 
of any cover at all, has but little bearing on the successful transporta- 
tion of eggs. The principal object of a damp cover being to supply 
additional moisture the evidence would clearly indicate that it might be ~ 
dispensed with for shipments designed to reach consignees within three 
or four days, the damp trays on which the eggs are spread and the eggs 
themselves retaining all the moisture essential. 
However, although in the present instance there was no manifest dif- 
ference in results due to any special feature in the cover or between the 
several methods and the absence of any covering, except possibly tray 
No. 20, covered with snow, and on which there were no dead fish and 
only 7 dead eggs, or a trifle over half the average, still, the conclusion 
can hardly be drawn that the absence or presence of a damp covering of 
some kind would be immaterial for eggs conveyed long journeys; and, 
as it can do no harm under any circumstances, and makes provision for 
