30 Report of the American 



Development goes on very slowly, and the eggs are not generally in 

 the proper state for transportation according to the common standard, 

 the coloring of the eyes, until Februar\". at which time the eggs are 

 divided amongst the several pati-ons of the enterprise. Of those falling 

 to the share of Maine in 38 73. a portion were kept and hatched at 

 Bucksport, The most forward of them began to hatch in March, but 

 only a few individuals came out then : the fall of temperature that 

 accompanied the opening of spring appearing to almost suspend gi'owth. 

 The hatching proceeded very slowh' until the last week in April when the 

 ice was all thawed in the pond above, and the temperatm'e began to rise. 

 I do not know that there is any disadvantage connected with this low 

 temperature. On the contrary. I think it quite likely that the delay of 

 hatching until April and May is rather advantageous to 3'oung fish that 

 are to be turned out to seek their own food. Fish hatched out in January 

 and grown to the feeding stage in February or early in March, must 

 either be tiu-ned out into streams that are so cold as to ai-rest their growth 

 and keep them a long time small and weak, besides being perhaps lacking 

 in natural food, or they must be fed artificially. K the latter course be 

 adopted. I fear the fish will be unfitted, to a certain extent, to take care 

 of themselves. The natural date of the hatching of salmon in the rivers 

 of Maine must correspond closely with the date in the Bucksport Hatch- 

 ing House. 



The es:gs distributed in 1«73. numbering 1.241.800. were sent to everv 

 State in Xew England, and also to Xew York. New Jersey. Pennsylvania, 

 Ohio. Michigan, and "SVisconsin. The young fish hatched were in every 

 instance set at liberty as soon as the yolk sack was absorbed. The whole 

 number thus turned out was 876,000. The present season the number 

 of eggs disti'ibuted will probably exceed 2.200,000, and. unless some 

 extraordinary mishap interferes, the number of young fish will be more 

 than double that of last year. The distribution is so wide that hardly 

 any river receives an adequate stock, but I trust that in some instances 

 the number will be sufficient to produce a decided impression. 



