842 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



capacity of the cars, has introduced a corresponding reduction in the 

 cost of distribution. 



Only one car (No. 3) is as yet equipped for this service. This mud*' 

 three trips, carrying each time, in addition to its full complement of fish, 

 1,200,000 eggs, and experience has shown that the hatching of the eggs 

 in this moving station can be conducted as conveniently and with as 

 good results as at the fixed stations. The number of hatching-jars iu 

 use was L2, each requiring one half a gallon of water per minute and 

 having a capacity of 90,0t)0 eggs. 



It is desirable that the equipment of car No. .'{should be increased to 

 60 jars, which will afford hatching room, for 5,000,000 shad eggs or about 

 8,000,000 whitefish eggs. It is recommended that car No. 2 be similarly 

 equipped and provided with circulating hatching and collecting appa- 

 ratus, thus giving each a carrying 'capacity four-fold greater than if 

 young fish only are transported. 



Should the increase of the work of shad production necessitate, as is 

 probable, the construction of another car, it is desirable that this should 

 be built and equipped with special reference to its use as a field or mov- 

 ing station for the hatching of eggs of shad and whitefish. 



TRANSFER OF EGGS TO DISTANT STATIONS. 



The number of shad eggs collected during the season was greater 

 than we could care for at Battery and Central Stations. The necessity 

 of making proper provision for this excess led to the application of 

 the methods of transportation now in use for the transfer of eggs from 

 Fort Washington to Central Station to the transfer of large lots oi eggs 

 to remote stations, where the eggs were hatched and planted in ad- 

 jacent waters. 



The eggs, packed on shallow, cloth-lined wooden trays, were crated 

 up in packages of convenient size for handling (each package contain- 

 ing 250,000 eggs), packed in the refrigerators of car 3, the temperature 

 regulated so as to stand at about G0° F., and transferred to destina- 

 tion. Of the four lots of 2,000,000 each, moved in this way, two arrived 

 at destination iu good condition, one in inferior condition, and one 

 proved almost a total loss. This lot, however, was delayed 12 hours 

 en route, and the eggs for safety stored in a refrigerating apartment 

 where the temperature approached freezing. To this is doubtless to be 

 attributed the loss of this shipment. 



We have yet to learn much as to the conditions determining the suc- 

 cessful transfer before we can be assured of uniform success in making 

 shipments of eggs instead of fish to distant points, but doubtless the 

 movement of eggs instead of fish will be the main feature of future 

 distributions, since eggs can be transferred in large numbers at little 

 relative cost to distant points convenient to the waters to be stocked, 

 and hatched out there in improvised field stations or in a ear equipped 

 as a hatching station. 



Washington, D. C, July 25, 1887. 



